Martha PLESTED

PLESTED, MARTHA (b. England, c. 1854, d. Sydney, NSW, 22 Dec 1922). First Queensland Baptist overseas missionary.

Martha Plested arrived in Brisbane from England on 7 June 1885, aged about 31, and became a member of the Jireh Baptist Church in Fortitude Valley. One month later she heard pioneer Baptist missionary Ellen Arnold (q.v.) speak about her work in Bengal, India and of her desire to return with others to work amongst the women of the 'zenanas' (inner part of the home restricted to women). Realising that this was an opportunity to fulfill a long-held desire, she only took a day to make her decision, confident that 'God has chosen her for this special work' and that he 'would fit me for whatever was needed'.

The Queensland Baptist Missionary Society, formed on 5 June 1885 as a result of the vision of Silas Mead (q.v.) of Adelaide received her application, and two months later Martha Plested was farewelled from Brisbane at a commissioning service held at the Wharf Street Baptist Church. At the time, there were 15 Baptist churches, 13 pastors and 1324 members in the colony, who raised £110 to cover her passage, outfit, salary and expenses. They hoped that other recruits would soon join Plested to staff a Queensland field, but Kate Allenby of Windsor Road Baptist Church, who went to the field with Martha Plested in 1890 was the only one to do so. She was with Martha for four years before working independently, later establishing the Evangelical Missionary Society in Mayurbhanj (est 1900). Martha Plested, Ellen Allenby and three others who arrived in India in December 1885 were known as the 'Five Barley Loaves' and they helped establish a significant ministry for Australian Baptists in East Bengal.

Plested had no formal training, but she did not lack ability and spiritual qualities. Working first at Faridpur on the Ganges with the SA Baptist Missionary Society, she moved east to Comilla with the NSW Mission. Finally, she was asked by her committee was one of Sydney's leading evangelicals. She distributed religious tracts and lollies to children and was active in the major women's evangelical organisations, especially those working for the welfare of women, girls and animals. She published her poetry and was a prolific letter writer to the newspapers on prison reform and other subjects. In a 1884 letter to the Brisbane Courier which sparked a fierce controversy, she denounced Queensland's Contagious Diseases Act and the resultant brutality towards suspected prostitutes. In 1886 she was on a governmental Ladies' Committee which condemned abuses at Newington Asylum for aged and destitute women, at which she had regularly visited and given gospel addresses.

Pottie was a founding member of the WCTU and an active worker for total abstinence from alcohol and against war and militarism. In March 1890 she became president of the Franchise League, perhaps the first organisation in Sydney with the sole aim of campaigning for women's suffrage. After five months the League folded; she then joined the Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales. Pottie undertook poor relief during the 1890s depression, and supported missionary work in India. Each Christmas until her death, she privately distributed tea, cake, flour and toys to 'upwards of 100 'destitute widows and mothers. Her public speaking and writing talents, energy and zeal ensured her an influential place among Sydney's evangelical activists, whilst she was also the centre of a loving extended family.

H Radi (ed), 200 Australian Women (Sydney, 1988), 356; Sydney Morning Herald 18 Nov 1907

JUDITH GODDEN