Rankin, James, 1831-1902. Papers of James Rankin [manuscript], 1869-1924.
Title:
Papers of James Rankin [manuscript], 1869-1924.
The papers consist of letters, journal, letterbook, diaries, cartes-de-visite, and scrapbooks of Rankin. Twenty four letters, 1869-1870, chiefly to Louisa Caird McCullough Paterson, discuss plans for their marriage. The diaries, journal and letterbook, 1880-1881, concern Rankin's trip to Nyasaland to investigate charges against the Church of Scotland's Blantyre mission levelled by Andrew Chirnside, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. Rankin records his supplies and medicines, his passage by train and steamer through France, Italy, Egypt and Arabia, and a voyage on the S.S. Abyssinia to Zanzibar, Mocambique and Quelimane, visits with H.E. O'Neill, British consul at Mocambique and vice-consul Nunez at Quelimane, observations about the status of the natives, opinions of government employees, fear of Portugese encroachment, brutality of Portugese rule, the role of missions in general, the charges against the Blantyre mission station and his inspection of conditions there, the taking of depositions by Alexander Pringle, Deputy Commissioner ordered by the British Foreign Office to assist Rankin, and a search by Rankin, Henry Henderson and John Buchanan for a new mission site suitable for work among the Makololo. There are also newsclippings, letters to the editor, copies of letters concerning charges against the mission, and Rankin's investigation, and an agreement between the Reverend Duff McDonald, head of the Blantyre Mission and Messrs. J. and F. Moir, managers of the Livingstonia Central Africa Company. Two later scrapbooks, 1892-1895 and 1912-1924, contain clippings about Church of Scotland missions in British Central Africa, the Blantyre Mission, and Scottish parishes, and essays and poems. Cartes-de-visite of Rankin and his wife are included. Correspondents include Pringle, Chirnside, and James C. Herdman.
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33 items.
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