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The Personal Papers of will Freshwater (1872-1936), Missionary in Northern Rhodesia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2022

Peter B. Freshwater
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Extract

      I am not everybody,
      But I am somebody,
      I cannot do everything,
      But I can do something,
      What I can do,
      I ought to do,
      What I ought to do,
      By the Grace of God
      I will do.

So wrote Will Freshwater in a family commonplace book on 1 October 1900. It must have been shortly before then that he had resolved to train for the African mission field. Eighteen months later-he was to embark with other, more experienced missionaries for Chinde in Mozambique, en route for the London Missionary Society's (LMS) Central Africa Mission in North Eastern Rhodesia. At his death in 1936 he left a small collection of private papers which is still in the keeping of his family.

Type
Documentation
Information
African Research and Documentation , Volume 18 , 1978 , pp. 15 - 20
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1978

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References

1 He was actually baptised Willie, but only used this form of his name when writing to his parents, preferring the shorter form. He used William on his LMS candidate's papers, obviously fearing that the baptismal form of his name would be regarded as frivolous or familiar.

2 Jlost of the information on his early life has been gleaned, from Will's candidate's papers.

3 The London headquarters, in Bow, of the East London Institute for Home and Foreign Missions.

4 For this information I am indebted to the staff of the Local Studies Department, Birmingham Reference Library.

5 D. Purves died at Mbereshi in 1901, aged 36.

6 A very summary account of the affair is given in Rotberg, Robert I., Christian missionaries and the creation of Northern Rhodesia, 1880-1924, Princeton, Princeton U.P., 1965, pp.159-160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Rev. Harry Johnson worked in the Central Africa Mission from 1896 to 1907.

8 op. cit., p.134.

9 She was baptised Annie, but used Nancy throughout her life.

10 Northern Rhodesia in the days of the Charter, Oxford, Blackwell, 1961, p.63.

11 His parents called him Bernard, often referring to him in letters and journals as Sonnie. He has always preferred the name Bruce.

12 H. C. Nutter served in the Central Africa Mission 1901-1931, when he left the LMS to become a welfare officer in the Copper Belt.

13 See also Norman Goodall, A history of the London Missionary Society, l895-19 45, London, OUP, 1954, p.274.

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