H[arriet] Hope

In 1842 a Miss H. Hope was serving as secretary of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East, which was formed in 1834 as a interdenominational missionary society. Its purpose was to send women teachers to various English schools already established in India. Most likely Miss Hope is Harriet Hope (1819-60), the daughter of Samuel Hope (1781-1837) of Liverpool (see entry below), a correspondent of William Carey and support of the BMS. Later in life Harriet Hope married Charles van der Meulen Robertson (1816–67). In 1842 Harriet was serving as secretary of the Society for Promoting Female Education in China, India and the East, which was formed in 1834 as a interdenominational missionary society. Its purpose was to send women teachers to various English schools already established in India. Harriet wrote to Joseph Angus, Secretary of the BMS, on 13 July 1842 about the marriage of a “Mrs Thomas,” the former Miss Wilson. She was seeking to collect the £82 owed her society by the BMS due to the early marriage of her former employee, Martha Wilson, to the BMS missionary James Thomas, both working in Calcutta. The marriage of Miss Wilson and Rev. Thomas ended Miss Wilson’s fifteen months of service to the society. Miss Hope’s letter was read before the BMS Committee on 4 August 1842; a resolution was then passed requesting that Angus meet with Miss Hope and discuss the matter further. See History of the Society for Promoting Female Education in the East (London: Edward Suter, 1847); also BMS Committee Minutes, Vol. H (Oct. 1841-Dec. 1842), f. 157; Timothy Whelan, ed., Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Baptist History Series, Mercer University Press, 2009), 239-40.