William Knibb, Falmouth, to Edward Knibb, Liverpool, 18 April 1835.

Falmouth, April 18th 1835

My dear Brother

         We were fully as happy to receive your epistle as you could have been to welcome my publication. I have this morning heard that a young Lady, the daughter of the Builder of my Chapel is about to sail to Liverpool and send by her a few hasty lines, though they must be but few. I baptized 92 yesterday in the Sea, when about 3000 spectators were present, and all behaved with the utmost decorum. Among them was a Wesleyan Preacher, and 4 able persons of that persuasion. I had full 2000 in and round the Chapel yesterday at least I think so, preached twice, received the members, and administered the Lords Supper to about 900 persons. This morning I am fully fatigued, and to morrow I start on a Missionary tour of 100 miles. I and [illegible word] Abbott Dexter are stationed near [each] other, and are building 4 Chapels in the Parish, so that my hands, my head, and my heart are full.

         Send you a picture frame for yourself or Betsy, and a Ruler for good Dr Raffles. On walking over the ruins of my old Chapel in this Town, I found two or three old stumps of the Posts which had supported the Chapel I had them carefully dug up, for they were precious to me. One of my deacons named Andrew Dirpon has made them into a few very few frames and rulers—that is their history—So you and the worthy Dr, the first Preacher who welcomed me home, when you receive these, part of the only relics left of the destroyed Chapels in 1832. This wood had been in the ground full 20 years, which will give you some idea of its durability.

         When you present it to the Dr, give him my very kind respects; I hope he will not refuse the present because it is so trifling, its the circumstance makes it valuable to me. On reaching the ruins of the Chapel at Rio Bueno, my mind was much pleased at seeing the whole ruins covered over with a plant called the tree of life. If I were a poet, I could make a poem on the subject perhaps the worthy Dr can.         

         We are all through mercy well. Mary I expect will write. I should be very glad of the money.  Christopher and Mary and Ann have when they can spare it, I wish it here, as I have since purchased a house for 1000 pounds our money, and when they can pay it, let it be paid into the hands of Mr Dyer, and I can draw for it. If I could have half of it in 6 months from when this reaches you I should be thankful. Let me know whether this can be done. 

                  With very kind love to you all

                                             Remain

                                                               Yours very affectionately

                                                                                 William Knibb

Mr Edward Knibb

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 216-18 (annotated version); also Eng. MS. 379, fol. 1157a, John Rylands University Library of Manchester.  Thomas F. Abbott was a BMS missionary to Jamaica, 1831-47. Benjamin Bull Dexter (d. 1863) was a BMS missionary to Jamaica, 1834-53. Knibb is referring to the riots instigated by the Colonial Church Union, a group formed by members of the St. Ann’s Militia, Jamaica, composed mostly of white merchants and landowners, who became violently opposed to the efforts of the missionaries to educate and inevitably promote abolition among the slaves. They supported the established church and the royal government’s prerogative to maintain slavery in the colony. In January 1832, the Union members engaged in a series of assaults on the Baptist chapels scattered throughout Jamaica. By the time the rioting had ended, thirteen Baptist chapels had been burned to the ground, with losses totaling more than £100,000. See F. A. Cox, History of the Baptist Missionary Society, from 1792 to 1842, 2 vols. (London: T. Ward, and G. and J. Dyer, 1842), 2: 130-31, 135, 155, 162, 205; John Clarke, Memorials of the Baptist Missionaries in Jamaica (London: Yates and Alexander, 1869), 106; Philip Wright, Knibb “the Notorious”: Slaves’ Missionary 1803-1845 (London: Sidgwick and Jackson, 1973) 92-111; for a history of the political efforts of the Baptist missionaries in ending slavery in Jamaica, see Alex Tyrrell,  “The ‘Moral Radical Party’ and the Anglo-Jamaican Campaign for the Abolition of the Negro Apprenticeship System,” English Historical Review 99 (1984): 481-502.