4 - The Pillar of Fire Moves Forward: The Advent of British Missionaries 1793–1806

Summary

And must I part with all I have,

Jesus, my Lord, for Thee?

This is my joy, since Thou hast done

Much more than this for me.

(Benjamin Beddome)

CHARLES GRANT was not about to give up his missionary plans despite the defeat of the ‘pious clause’ in 1793. In 1794 he was unanimously elected to the Direction of the Company through the influence of Henry Dundas and others. He and his fellow Evangelical director, Edward Parry, were a formidable duo determined to use their patronage and influence to further Christianity in India. However, it was not Grant and Parry, but the Baptists who were to have the first success. While they were embroiled in the negotiations over the renewal of the Company's charter, John Thomas, whom Grant had sacked for his failure to run the mission at Gumalti as agreed, succeeded in exciting the interest of William Carey to go to India rather than Tahiti. Carey had been instrumental in the formation of the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792. In June 1793 Thomas and Carey set sail from England as the Society's first missionaries. However, their timing could not have been worse: they sailed just after the defeat of the ‘pious clause’ and the renewal of the Court of Directors' standing order requiring the expulsion of all unlicensed persons arriving in India.