Thomas Trowt

Thomas Trowt (1784-1816) was a native of Kingsbridge, Devon. He joined the Baptist church in How’s Lane, Plymouth (at that time pastored by John Dyer) in December 1811. After spending several years working in Kingsbridge and Plymouth, Trowt answered the call to the mission field, entering Bristol Academy in August 1813. He was set apart by the Pithay congregation in Bristol as a BMS missionary in April 1814, arriving in Java on 16 September 1814. Before he left Bristol, he married John Dyer’s sister-in-law, Eliza Burnell. John Ryland, who spoke at Trowt’s dedication service, observed that “since Mr. Trowt came to Bristol … at the expense of the Baptist Missionary Society, he has discovered much ardent piety, and remarkable diligence in the acquisition of learning.” Trowt’s service in Java, however, was short-lived; he died from dysentery at Samarang in October 1816. See BMS Periodical Accounts, vol. 5. pp. 295-296 (for Ryland’s quotation above); vol. 6, pp. 355-396 (for “Memoir of Mr. Thomas Trowt”); Baptist Magazine 6 (1814): 256-58; F. A. Cox, History of the Baptist Missionary Society, from 1792 to 1842, 2 vols. (London: T. Ward, and G. and J. Dyer, 1842), 1:253, 310-311; W. H. Carey, ed. Oriental Christian Biography, Containing Biographical Sketches of Distinguished Christians who have Lived and Died in the East. 3 vols. (Calcutta: J. Thomas, Baptist Mission House, 1852), 2:368-372. Some letters to Trout by Fuller, Carey, Marshman, and others, can be found in the collections at Bristol Baptist College Library.