Joshua Marshman, a printed letter to John Ryland, 12 March 1812 (received 9 September 1812).

Entitled “To the Friends of Christianity and Oriental Literature,” the letter was probably printed in Edinburgh, for donations were requested to be received in Edinburgh by Dr. Charles Stuart of George Square, and Christopher Anderson, as well as James Deakin[2] in Glasgow. Marshman’s letter informs Ryland of the destruction of the Mission Printing Office by fire on 11 March 1812, with losses estimated at  £12,000. Marshman writes, “How it arose we know not. Brother Ward and others think it must have been done by design, and that some Idolater among our servants, turning pale with envy at the sight of the Bible printing in so many languages, contrived this mode of stopping the work. This, however, is mere conjecture. Be strong in the Lord, my dear Brother, he will never forsake the work of his own hands.”

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. ?? (annotated version); also Eng. MS. 387, fol. 123a, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. This letter was printed in the Baptist Magazine 4 (1812), 444-46. ]James Deakin was a Baptist layman in Glasgow and active supporter of the BMS, working closely with George Barclay and Christopher Anderson. For correspondence between Andrew Fuller and James Deakin, see “Andrew Fuller and James Deakin, 1803,” Baptist Quarterly 7 (1934-35), 326-33; “Letters to James Deakin,” Baptist Quarterly 7 (1934-35), 361-73.