Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India, and the East

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.

It was established as an interdenominational missionary society and was staffed by women and employed women agents. Its principal object was the establishment and superintendence of schools in China, India and the 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 to take charge of the orphanage asylum, Anne Thomson to Chinsurah and Mary Craven to Madras. The Society also sent missionaries to Singapore in 1836 but it was not until the 1840s when 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, but 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 it worked at Cape Town (1848-1876); in Palestine 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 and some working parties existed until at least 1915.

Reference: Rosemary A. Keen, Catalogue of the papers of Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East, Church Missionary Society (1987). ; Editorial introduction by Rosemary Keen in Church Missionary Society Archive. Missions to Women. A Listing and Guide to Section II: Parts 1-3 of the Microfilm Collection (Adam Matthew Publications, 1997).

From the guide to the Records of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East, 1834-1899, (University of Birmingham Information Services, Special Collections Department)