Society for Promoting Female Education in the East

A small, very incomplete collection comprising the surviving archives of the Society which passed to the Church Mission Society some time before January 1900. Including nine minute books, ledgers and other financial records, 37 annual reports, a single copy of 'The Female Missionary Intelligencer' and a few other miscellaneous items. The only correspondence in the archive relates to the closure of FES in 1899.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE MICROFILM OR DIGITAL COPIES OF THIS VERY POPULAR COLLECTION ARE MADE AVAILABLE IN PLACE OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS TO ENSURE THE LONG-TERM PRESERVATION OF THE RECORDS. PLEASE SEE 'COPIES' BELOW.

Microfilm copiesThe collection was micropublished by Adam Matthew Publications as part of a compilation of records relating to various missions to women which was released under the title 'Church Missionary Society Archive: Section II: Missions To Women, Part 1 (Adam Matthew Publications, 1997). The micropublication makes available copies of all of the records of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East (FES) alongside selected records of three other mission organisations: periodicals of the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (CEZMS), minutes of the Zenana, Bible and Medical Mission (ZBMM) and annual reports of the Indian Female Normal School and Instruction Society (IFNS). Copies of the microfilm have been purchased by libraries and other institutions around the world. The full text of the printed guide to the microfilm is available online through the Adam Matthew Publications website at http://www.ampltd.co.uk/.

Reference copies of the microfilm are available in Cadbury Research Library in microfilm drawer E2; paper copies of the guide are also available in Cadbury Research Library.

Looking at records onlineDigital copies of all of the materials which have been micropublished by Adam Matthew Publications are also available online through the website of Adam Matthew Digital. Released under the titles: 'Research Source - Church Missionary Society Archive: missions to women', Church Missionary Society Periodicals', 'Empire Online'. The digitized copies are available to visitors to, and members of, the University of Birmingham and other subscribing institutions. To find out more about how to access records through Adam Matthew Digital or to request a free trial, go to https://www.amdigital.co.uk/.

The collection is held as part of the wider Church Missionary Society Archive. It is catalogued as a discrete collection, arranged in three series:
A Administration
F Finance
Z Miscellaneous

Cadbury Research Library holds the records of several mission organisations including the Church Mission Society official archive (GB 0150 CMS) and the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society (GB 0150 CEZ); the Church Missionary Society archive includes an FES working parties despatch book 1907-1915 (CMS/W/A3). Cadbury Research Libary also holds a sketch book of Caroline Cuffley Giberne, 1838-1862, an FES missionary who served in Ceylon (DA18).

• Society for Promoting Female Education in the East
• Female Education Society

Access to all registered researchers

The Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East was founded 25 July 1834. It had its origins in an appeal for women missionaries to work amongst Chinese women made by an American missionary, Mr David Abeel, during a visit to England in 1834. Its title was abridged to the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East by 1838 and it is also sometimes referred to as the Female Education Society (FES).

FES was established as an interdenominational missionary society, staffed by women and employing women agents. Its principal object was the establishment and superintendence of schools in China, India and adjacent countries. It supplied missionaries and school teachers who were given passage and outfit money but who were expected to be supported locally; they, in turn, trained native women. The Society also gave schools grants of money, supplies of school materials and boxes of work materials for sale. The first missionary, Eliza Thornton, went to Malacca in 1836 and, in the same year, Elizabeth Carter went to Cawnpore [Kanpur] to take charge of the orphanage asylum, Anne Thomson went to Chinsrah and Mary Craven to Madras. The Society also sent missionaries to Singapore in 1836 but it was not until the 1840s that the first missionaries were sent to mainland China. The work in India expanded in the 1840s and 1850s and agents were sent to Palestine and Syria from the 1860s and to Japan from 1877.

The Society's main work in India centred on Madras 1837-1888, Cuttack, Orissa 1854, Calcutta 1855, Multan 1863, Ludhiana 1867, Agra 1869 and Coonoor 1895. In China, the main stations were Amoy 1848, Ningpo 1848 (transferred to Church Missionary Society 1888), Shanghai 1856-1880, Hong Kong 1858 and Foochow 1875. The Society also had agents in Singapore 1836 and Japan (Osaka 1877, Hakodate [Esashi] 1896). In South Africa work was based at Cape Town 1848-1876; the main stations in Kaffraria were Peelton 1855-1892, and Newlands Kahoon 1857-1883. In Palestine there were stations at Nazareth 1863, Bethlehem 1878 and Shefa Amr 1889; in Syria at Shemlan, Mount Lebanon 1861, and in Lebanon at Beirut 1859-1862, 1868-1871. The Society also worked in Mauritius 1860-1881. Its support for schools was widespread throughout India and China as well as Ceylon, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Burma, Penang, Greece, Turkey, Algeria and throughout the Levant.In 1899, following the death of the Secretary, Miss Webb, the Society was closed down and the work divided. The Church Missionary Society accepted 24 FES missionaries and their work in Palestine (Nazareth, Bethlehem and Shefa Amar), China (Hong Kong and Foochow), Japan (Osaka and Hakodate) and India (Agra and Multan). The schools in Singapore were handed over to the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society. The Baptist Missionary Society took over work at Cuttack, Orissa from 1 July 1899, while the London Missionary Society became responsible for Miss Dawson and her work at Coonoor. The British Syrian Schools Committee (now Middle East Christian Outreach) took over Shemlan from September 1899 and the work at Ludhiana was handed over to the American Presbyterian Mission. Ludhiana premises had been sold earlier to the North India School of Medicine (Ludhiana Medical Fellowship, now Friends of Ludhiana).

Supporters of the Society were encouraged from its earliest days to join together in groups as local Auxiliary Associations to raise funds and to spread interest about the work of the Society. Groups were formed at Liverpool and Hackney as early as 1836. These supporters were encouraged to continue after the closure of the Society and some working parties existed until at least 1915.

Honorary Secretaries: 1834-1840 Miss Elizabeth Adam 1834-1842 Miss H. Hope1841-1856 Miss Sarah Adam1847-1856 Miss Anne Bridges1856-1865 Miss Emma Leycester1857-1899 Miss Ellen Rutt1866-1884 Miss Haldane1881-1885 Miss Stirling1885-1899 Miss L. Hope

Secretary:1841 Miss Briggs1841-1899 Miss Rosamond Anne Webb

Cash Secretary [Finance Secretary 1891]:1854-1891 Miss Tait1891-1897 Miss A. K. Sinclair1897-1899 Miss C. E. Thorp

Sources: Rosemary A. Keen 'Catalogue of the papers of Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East, Church Missionary Society' 1987. Editorial