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Transcript of William Carey Bio
LIBERTY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
A BIOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH PAPER ON THE LIFE OF WILLIAM CAREY
A Paper Presented to
Dr. Gary Tomlin
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Course
CHHI 692
Christopher Ellis
July 10, 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Biographical Outline........................................................................................................................3
Influence on American Christianity.................................................................................................4
Writings Produced...........................................................................................................................4
Biography of Carey’s Life and Work..............................................................................................6
Personal Evaluation of Carey’s Life and Work.............................................................................11
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................14
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BIOGRAPHICAL STUDY OF THE LIFE OF WILLIAM CAREY
BIOGRAPHICAL OUTLINE
I. Genealogy and Early Years
a. Born to Peter and Ann Carey, 17 August 1761b. Born and lived in Paulerspury, England
II. Education and Trade
a. Father, Edmund, was a schoolmaster. 1767b. Health prevented field work, Carey became a cobbler
III. Conversion and Ministry
a. Lead to Christ at 17b. Called to Pastor, without a Seminary Education 1785
IV. Missionary Society Formation and Sending
a. Publishes An Inquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens
b. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel amongst the Heathen formed 2 October, 1792
V. Service in India
a. Arrives in India, 11 November, 1793b. Translates Bible into various languages an dialects, works to end the practice
of sati, contributes to education, fundamentally changed Indian cultureVI. Death and Legacy
a. Died 9 June, 1834b. “Father of Modern Missions”
3
INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
William Carey’s influence on American Christianity lies mostly in the realm of foreign
missions. He is the catalyst for Adoniram Judson coming to India. It is through Carey’s brave
sacrifice that the chokehold of the hyper-Calvinists was broken. Carey held to a five-fold
approach to missions that has only recently been reflected in the paradigm shift in world
missions. Stephen Neill wrote:
He saw missionary work as a five pronged advance, with equal attention directed to each of the five elements:
1. The widespread preaching of the Gospel by every possible method;2. The support of the preaching by the distribution of the Bible in the languages of the
country;3. The establishment at the earliest possible moment of a Church;4. A profound study of the back-ground and thought of the non-Christian peoples;5. The training at the earliest possible moment of an indigenous ministry1
For much of the twentieth century, the method of Foreign missions was to send
missionaries and start Western Churches, or Western-styled Churches. Bible translation was
important, but the methodology remained thoroughly Western. It was not until late in the
twentieth century that the use of indigenous peoples became the focus of mission sending
agencies. The training of local Pastors to start the churches and to finish the work is now
standard operating procedure within most foreign missions agencies.
WRITINGS PRODUCED
The most important of Carey’s writings is An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians
to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. When David Platt published his now
1 Stephen Neill. A History of Christian Missions. Penguin Books: England. 1990, p. 224.
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bestselling book, Radical, this author realized quickly that Platt’s idea was little more that
Carey’s question stretched to an American-Dream framework. However applicable Platt’s book
is to the Church today, Carey’s was doubly so in 1792. Carey closes his pamphlet with thus:
We are exhorted to lay up treasure in heaven, where moth nor rust doth corrupt, nor thieves break through and steal. It is also declared that whatsoever a man soeth, that also shall he reap. These Scriptures teach us that the enjoyments of the life to come, bear near relation to that which now is; a relation similar to that of the harvest, and the seed. It is true all the reward is of mere grace, but it is nevertheless encouraging; what a treasure, what a harvest must await such Characters as Paul, and Elliot, and Brainerd, and others, who have given themselves wholly to the work of the Lord. What a heaven it will be to see the many myriads of poor heathens, of Britons amongst the rest, who by their labours have been brought to the knowledge of God. Surely a crown of rejoicing like this is worth aspiring to. Surely it is worth while to lay ourselves out with all our might, in promoting the cause, and kingdom of Christ. FINIS.2
Carey’s impassioned plea did not fall on deaf ears for this was the springboard that launched the
British Mission Society.
It would be remiss to not mention Carey’s Bible translation as being among his important
writings. The value or detriment of these writings cannot be judged accurately for they did not
survive history. They do serve as an example of how translators must learn idiom within a given
language. Carey was oft criticized for his translation work and through the years all of his
translations were replaced3.
His personal correspondence has shed much light on the life of this great missionary. We
learn of his first wife’s mental illness, the heartbreaks or laboring amongst a people who see him
as entirely foreign, and his dedication to his Lord. It is through these letters one sees Carey’s
2 William Carey. An Inquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. Champaign, IL: Book Jungle, 2007.
3 Neill, 224.
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heart. It is through his correspondence that word gets back to England concerning the practice of
sati, the ritual burning alive of women on the funeral pyres of their dead husbands.4
BIOGRAPHY OF CAREY’S LIFE AND WORK
William Carey was born on August 17, 1761. It was a humble beginning in a small town
called Paulerspury in Northampton, England. The stage was that of Anglican heritage and access
to public learning. Carey’s grandfather, Peter Carey, was the first headmaster of an endowed
school for grammar. Small as it was, this school did afford a select number of children a place in
which to learn. Peter died in his forties leaving Ann Carey to rear their child, a son, Edmund.
Edmund had a brother ho had gone to the wilderness of Canada earlier. He would return to
England later in life and be a mentor to one young William Carey. Edmund was educated in the
same school his father had held the headmaster position in years earlier. At the age of twenty-
four, Edmund married Elizabeth Wells in Towcester, moving his mother into their home as well.
The newly weds were poor, but Edmund worked hard to provide. He had learned the
former trade of his father and excelled at the loom. On August 17, 1761, a son was born to
Edmund and Elizabeth and was named after Ann’s firstborn, Edmund’s deceased brother.
William was the joy of his grandmother, which garnered him special attention. She died a few
years later and William’s uncle, named Peter after his father, had returned form Canada.
Uncle Peter was to influence his nephew very much, the influence of which is vastly
evident in William’s later life. Peter returned to England with stories of the wilderness and of the
battles between the French and the English to control the territory of Canada. He was childless,
4 Terry Carter, The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey. Macon, Georgia: Smyth & Helwys, 2000. p.65.
6
but he was very fond of children, especially William. Peter “drew his nephew to him telling him
tells of ships and the sea, of Canada’s Indians and French people, of its woods and winters, of
rivers, falls, and lakes, beasts and birds, trees and flowers; casting the spell of the New World
about him.”5 Indeed, Peter poured himself into young William and developed in the younger a
love for botany, biology, foreign lands, and foreign peoples.
In 1767, the schoolmaster position was vacated and Edmund was asked by the Anglican
Church to take the position. His prior studiousness and work ethic made him the natural choice
for the position. William was six and was now moving geographically and socially. The position
provided a nice home close to the school with a virtual playground of plants and animals. There
was an orchard and a moat that afforded William the opportunity to explore, study, and learn a
great deal. This bodying of learning at such a young age would continue throughout Carey’s life
and put to full use while a missionary in India.
Even at a young age, William exhibited keen interests in math, science, and travel. He
preferred to read Columbus to Crusoe. He enjoyed the factual accounts over the fictitious ones.
By the age of twelve, he had memorized a Latin vocabulary. Even at this young age, William
Carey had demonstrated his gifting in languages.
William suffered from a skin condition that prevented him from being in the sun for long
periods. As much as he loved wedding his rows in the garden, the condition left him in pain,
causing his skin to redden and swell and prevented him from sleeping. Still, he labored in the sun
as much as possible. His father soon realized that his son would need a different trade and
searched long and prayerfully for the perfect master to apprentice his son. The advancement of
technology played another role in finding William a different trade. His father may have seen the
weaving business’ demise and chose for William instead the trade of shoemaker. Clarke Nichols
5 Carey, S. Pearce. William Carey. London: Butler and Tanner, Frome, Somerset. 2008, 15.
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of Piddington became William’s master, an apparently devout Christian. William would soon
discover that Nichols was not. The hidden face of Nichols put a sour taste for religion in the
mouth of the young apprentice. It seems the master shoemaker was also a master sinner.
During William’s apprenticeship in the shoemaker’s shop, he worked with another young
lad, one John Warr, who was a few years older. Warr’s grandfather had helped to found
Potterspury’s Independent Church and Carey had distaste for Dissenters. After all, Carey’s father
and grandfather had been servants in the Anglican Church. This did not dissuade Carr in the least
as he kept up his pursuit of Christ for himself and eventually claimed Him as his Lord and
Savior. Carr eventually convinced Carey to accompany him to one of their prayer gatherings
where a spark was lit in Carey’s heart. This was not the cold, formalistic Christianity he had
come accustomed to in the Anglican Church. Author S. Pearce Carey notes that these people
seemed to have “ a closer hold on God.”6
In September of 1779, Nichols lay dying. The two young lads he had agreed to take on as
apprentices were able to share the gospel with him and lead him to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ as his personal Lord and Savior. It was after Nichols’ death that God introduced a few
other influential men into the life of William Carey; men that would ultimately push him to a
truer understanding of the gospel and sharpen his Calvinistic views. Thomas Scott and Robert
Hall were both confirmations of sorts to the conclusions Carey himself was arriving at in his own
studies. Scott was self-taught in Biblical languages, as was Carey.7 It is interesting to note the
influence that knowledge of these languages would play out in the lives of these men,
particularly Carey’s. Hall emphasized the individual’s sole responsibility to claim Christ as his
own thus confirming Carey’s Calvinistic beliefs and not the hyper-Calvinism that was becoming
6 Carey, 25.7 Carey, 28-29.
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predominant line of thinking among Evangelicals in England.8 In 1792, Carey preached his
famous sermon on Isaiah 54:2-3 where he pronounced, “Expect great things. Attempt great
things.”9
In the summer of 1781, William Carey and Dorothy Plackett were joined in holy
matrimony. Dorothy was the daughter of one of the ministers leading the Dissenter Prayer
Meeting known as the Hackleton Meeting.10 She came from a Puritan home and was known to be
a godly woman. She was also five years his senior. Their first child died of fever. Life was hard
for British merchants after the embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Americans. Carey suffered
through one of their roughest winters and even resorted to selling repaired, used shoes to provide
for his family.11 It would seem that Carey was always a man to struggle through whatever came
his way in order to survive.
Carey pressed evermore into his service for the gospel. Having arrived at the conviction
that baptism was indeed for believers only, Carey was baptized by immersion in October of 1783
by John Ryland. Ryland was a Baptist minister in Northampton. Carey would soon come to read
some of Captain Cook’s log books describing his voyages and discoveries in the South Pacific.
S. Pearce Carey wrote: “…the log books changed into something deeper – a revelation of the sin
and sorrow, the immorality, cruelty and misery of unevangelized peoples; a drama of the world’s
tragic ignorance of Christ, a door opening into hell.”12 Carey was tremendously burdened for the
heathen from this point on and prayed much for the lost inhabiting the places that Captain Cook
written about in his logs. He was called to pastor in 1785 and was ordained in 1787. He
ministered among a people poor in riches, yet rich in fellowship and love. Smallpox broke out in
8 Ibid., 29.9 James Leo Garrett. Baptist Theology: A Four Century Study. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. 200910 Carey, 31.11 Ibid., 34.12 Ibid., 35
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Moulton in 1788 and caused a great number of deaths in his pastorate. Carey was admitted into
the Northampton Fraternity of Ministers. It was here that Carey’s question of whether or not the
great commission applied to ministers of every age and not just the apostles’. It was John
Ryland’s father who reportedly brushed Carey’s question aside by stating, “Young man, sit
down, sit down! You’re and enthusiast. When God pleases to convert the heathen, He’ll do it
without consulting you or me. Besides, there must be another Pentecostal gift of tongues!”13 The
hyper-Calvinism of the day had reached its zenith, but Carey was still deeply burdened by this.
He had a world map that hung in his shoe making shop and he had sown a leather globe together
using different colored leather for the nations. He has secretly been gathering information and
studying the people groups of the world so that he might more adequately present his case and
the enormity of the Church’s duty that lay before them.14 Against fierce opposition from his own
colleagues, Carey was encouraged to write and publish a pamphlet that described the Church’s
need to reach the lost in the uttermost parts of the world. From meager means and beginnings,
this lay preacher had traced God’s hand of Providence throughout Scripture and time.
When pressed that the Lord’s commission extended only to the Apostles, Carey
responded, “Then why do we baptize? If baptism concerns us, then world missions must no
less.” He professed the idea that his own countrymen had access to the gospel, yet many chose to
not draw near and hear. The heathen on the other hand, had neither such ministers, nor the gospel
in their own language. He was often heard to say that if his friends would support him for a year,
he would go wherever they would send him, knowing that Captain Cook had described cannibals
on the islands he had visited. William Carey was a man deeply burdened by the lostness of the
world.
13 Ibid., 4714 Ibid., 48
10
A Baptist Missionary Society was born on October 2, 1792 in a small parlor. This was
unprecedented. Though many had gone in the name of established churches or on their own, this
was the first time a group of ministers had gathered to send one of their own with their own
means for support. They required, nor asked for any outside establishment assistance. This was a
cooperative of individuals using their own provisions to send a peer to a heathen land. S. Pearce
Carey wrote, “The faith of five – Carey, Fuller, Pearce, Ryland, and Sutcliff- in founding a
missionary society with such humble and feeble backing was entirely new in modern British
history.”15 He went on to describe this group as “relatively young- Sutcliff 40, Ryland 39, Fuller
38, Carey 31, and Pearce 26.”16
From this meeting, Carey would journey on to India as a missionary. The work was far
from easy and was ripe with trials. The tenacity exhibited in his youth would raise its head again
as an older man and Carey would labor for 40 years amongst the Hindu people of India. He can
be labeled: Christian Missionary and Botanist, Industrialist, Economist, Medical Humanitarian,
Media Pioneer, Agriculturalist, Translator and Educator, Astronomer, Library Pioneer, Forest
Conservationist, Crusader for Women’s Rights, Public Servant, Moral Reformer, and Cultural
Transformer.17 Carey went home to be with the lord on June 9, 1834. He had labored for 40 years
amongst the Indian peoples.
PERSONAL EVALUATION OF CAREY’S LIFE AND WORK
Carey’s boldness as a young Pastor to question the status quo of foreign missions is very
encouraging. His patience is a testimony to his commitment to his Lord. He did not quit when
15 Ibid,, 84.16 Ibid., 8717 Vishal & Ruth Mangalwadi, The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture,
Good News Publishers, Wheaton:IL. 1999. 1-25.
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first remanded by the senior Ryland, but rather began collecting data about foreign peoples,
studying maps, and researching methods by which the Church, not just himself, would carry out
Christ’s commission. Carey must have spent hours in prayer and knew that he was on solid
footing when pressing these issues. The confidence to go against the status quo, or to challenge
denominational authority and superiors was handled with the upmost care.
When one researches the life of William Carey, they will find that one aspect of his life is
often glossed over. Dorothy Carey was the first wife of William and the wife of his formative
years, even making the journey to India. James Beck has written, “Perhaps her sacrifice was not
a voluntary one, but it was a sacrifice none the less.” Dorothy Carey succumbs to the pressures
of being a missionary wife, suffers the death of a child, suffers from dysentery, is secluded in a
foreign land with little help, makes the five-month journey at the end of her pregnancy only to
give birth in India. She later goes mad. Her delusions include accusing William of adultery,
cussing, and throwing rather loud tantrums. She even goes after him with a kitchen knife at one
point. This episode in Carey’s life, however much he is to be admired, troubles this author. On
one hand, why did he not more fully consider the ramifications of his decision? On the other
hand, had he not gone, where would the state of world missions be? This event was difficult to
deal with and still lingers in thought. According to the Mangalwadis:
Yet it had been Dorothy’s sacrifice that had enabled Carey to do all that he did:1. Had she refused to come to India, Carey would have been forced to return to
England;2. Had she come from an educated upper-class background, she might have
completely refused the poor lifestyle they had to accept during the early years, when mission support was not there;
3. Had she insisted on studying and ministering, they could not have looked after their children in the early years
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4. As a result of her mental illness, mission societies began to treat wives as being equally important as their husbands: They were interviewed; their vision, abilities, and mental health were examined, their needs and concerns provided for.
5. Beck says that Dorothy became the hard anvil on which was hammered some of the success of Carey’s remarkable career18
In the aforementioned quote from Carey’s Enquiry, Carey recognizes that he is not the
“Father of Modern Missions” as is frequently attributed to him. There is a sense that our modern
paradigm closely follows his, but there were others who had ventured out into missions prior to
Carey ever leaving England. Carey himself notes the work of John Elliot and David Brainerd
among the natives of North America. Stephen Neill’s book on the History of Christian Missions
devotes eight chapters to mission work previous to Carey publishing Enquiry and the formation
of the Baptist Mission Society.19
How humbly any minister must feel to read of such a life of service! To sit week after
week in a local church with all of its innate struggles grumbling and complaining that the Lord
has called them to serve in such a dismal place. God, deliver your church from such thoughts.
Ignite in the preachers of today the fire you kindled in Carey so long ago. Instead of sending
resumes out looking for work, Pastors should be gathering information on unreached people
groups as Carey did. God, grant the tenacious spirit to preserver through trials for Your glory
and the greatness of Your name.
18 Mangalwadi, 54-55.19 Neill, 222.
13
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Beck, James. The Tragic Untold Story of Mrs. William Carey. Grand Rapids: Baler House Books, 1996
Carey, S. Pearce. William Carey. London: Butler and Tanner, Frome, Somerset. 2008
Carey, William. An Inquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. Champaign, IL: Book Jungle, 2007
Carter, Terry. The Journal and Selected Letters of William Carey. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2000
Garrett, James Leo. Baptist Theology: A Four-Century Study. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press. 2009
Vishal & Ruth Mangalwadi, The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for the Transformation of a Culture, Good News Publishers, Wheaton:IL. 1999
Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. Penguin Books: England. 1990
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