Welsh Journals

A PROVIDENTIAL RESCUE? GRIFFITH JONES AND THE MALABAR MISSION E. D. Evans The imagination of historians is often activated by the contemplation of how the course of history might have been changed if certain persons had made different decisions or choices from the ones they actually made, whilst at the same time admitting that it might be a futile and, at best, a speculative exercise. L. W. Cowie, a biographer of the first secretary of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Henry Newman, does just this, surmising what the fortunes of the first Protestant mission to be sent to India might have been had Griffith Jones, Llanddowror, accepted the invitation from the S.P.C.K. to go out there as a missionary cum schoolmaster.1 It is an episode in his early life that has been little discussed though Thomas Charles of Bala (born Llanfihangel Abercywyn), knew about it as early as 1809, and had seen letters relevant to it.2 Professor F. A. Cavenagh in his biography3 alludes to it, and Dr Mary Clement has provided a full documentation of it abstracted from the correspondence in the S.P.C.K. archives.4 This matter merits some consideration not only for the light it throws on Griffith Jones's early history, but also on an aspect of Welsh interests at a period of time when religion was considered to be at a low ebb, particularly in the diocese of St. David.5 It serves as an antidote to Saunders's inward-looking preoccupation with churchmanship and shows an unexpected interest in the world beyond Wales. The scene is set in India where in 1706 a mission was sent to Tanquebar on the Malabar coast in the neighbourhood of Madras, by King Frederick IV of Denmark. The Danes had a trading station there, whilst the English had a station nearby at Fort St. George. The Danish Mission, as it came to be known, was the first organised attempt to carry on missionary work by the Protestants in India. Though of Danish origin, 1 L. W. Cowie, Henry Newman, an American in Europe, 1956. 2 Y Drysorfa Ysbrydol, no, 2, March 1809. 3 F. A. Cavenagh, The Life and Work of Griffith Jones, 1930. 4M. Clement, Correspondence and Minutes of the S.P.C.K. relating to Wales, 1699-1740, 1952. 5 E. Saunders, View of Religion in the Diocese of St. David's, 1721.