With
an Introductory Essay by Francis Wayland, D.D.,
President
of Brown University.
Boston:
Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1836.
Eustace
Carey was a nephew of William Carey. The Baptist
Missionary Societysponsored
Eustace's missionary service to
India, 1814-1825.
The Baptist
Missionary Society requested that Eustace Carey write the Memoir
"from my relationship to Dr. Carey, and from my supposed intimate
conversancy with the history of their Eastern Mission" (Preface,
p. iii). Eustace Carey goes on to say that he has "endeavored,
throughout the work, to exhibit the Christian and the missionary, rather than
the philosopher and the scholar" (Preface,
p. iii).
Included
in the Memoir is William Carey's "Journal" and numerous lettersthat Carey sent to a diverse group of family,
friends, and supporters. Although Eustace Carey quotes the
"Journal" and the letters, he also interweaves into the narrative his
own unique interpretation of William Carey.
This book was the first
American memoir of William Carey's life, highlighted by Dr.
Francis Wayland's introductory essay.
Wayland, a leading Baptist in America,
was pastor of First Baptist Church, Boston, Massachusetts, 1821-1826. The
next year, he went to Brown
University, Providence, Rhode
Island, and in addition to teaching philosophy, he served as the university's fourth president
(1827-1855). For a brief biography
of Dr. Francis Wayland from William Cathcart, ed., The Baptist Encyclopedia, 2
vols., rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1883), click here:
vol. II, p. 1220vol. II, p. 1221vol. II, p. 1222.
Previously in 1806, Brown University had awarded William Carey the honorary
Doctor of Divinity (D.D.) degree.
To
view the book's portrait and signature of William Carey, click
here.
Title
Page and Reverse Side of Title Page Title
Pageii
Memoir
of William Carey, D.D.: Late
Missionary to Bengal;
Professor
of Oriental Languages in
the College of Fort William, Calcutta.
(Hartford:
Canfield and Robins, 1837).
"An
Introductory Essay by Jeremiah Chaplin [1776-1841],
Late
President of Waterville College."
In
1837, Canfield and Robins of Hartford, Connecticut, published a second American
edition of Eustace Carey's work with the same text as that of the first American
edition published by
Gould, Kendall and Lincoln. This second American edition included an introductory essay by Dr. Jeremiah Chaplin (1776-1841),
a Baptist minister and first president of Waterville Literary and Theological
Institute (now Colby College),
Waterville,
Maine. For a brief biography of Chaplin from William Cathcart, ed., The
Baptist Encyclopedia, 2 vols., rev. ed. (Philadelphia: Louis H.
Everts, 1883), click here: vol.
I,
p. 203vol. I, p. 204.
Another
American edition of
Eustace Carey's was published in 1844 along with Andrew
M. Smith, Brief History of Evangelical Missions: with the Date of
Commencement, and Progress and Present State
(Hartford, Conn.: Robins and Smith, 1844).
Eustace
Carey originally published the Memoir
of William Carey, D.D.: Late
Missionary to Bengal; Professor
of Oriental Languages in
the College of Fort William, Calcutta in London
(Jackson and Walford, 1836; 2nd ed., 1837). At the death of William Carey on June 9,
1834, in Serampore, Dr.
Joshua Marshman, Carey's longtime colleague, indicated a desire to write a
memoir for his friend. Marshman, however, died in 1837. Of
the relation between Marshman and Eustace Carey, George
Smith, The Life of William Carey,
Shoemaker and Missionary (1887), says in his "Preface,"
In
1836 the Rev. Eustace Carey anticipated him [Marshman] by issuing what is
little better than a selection of mutilated letters and journals made at the
request of the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society. It contains one
passage of value, however. Dr. Carey once said to his nephew, whose design he
seems to have suspected, "Eustace, if after my removal any one should
think it worth his while to write my Life, I will give you a criterion by
which you may judge of its correctness. If he give me credit for being a
plodder he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be too much. I
can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this I owe
everything."
