Rachel S. Voigt, Serampore, to Joseph Angus, Secretary, Baptist Mission Society, 6 Fen Court, Fenchurch Street, London, 16 March 1842.

Serampore March 16th 1842

Sir
  I trust you will pardon my taking the liberty to trouble you on a subject, so trifling perhaps as I need an apology for its introduction to your notice.

   Towards the close of 1840, I observed in the Baptist Magazine for that year the entry of a Donation of one guinea to Serampore. And being Secretary to the Serampore Ladies Benevolent Society, whose object it is to aid the various Schools and other Institutions in this Town (particularly those founded by my now deceased Father Dr Marshman and his beloved associates) I wrote to Mrs Burgon of Bucklersbury requesting her to procure the above sum from Mr Dyer and remitt to me in a manner I specified—

   Of the result of her application to Mr D, who was doubtless then suffering from the unhappy state of mind which is said to have been the cause of his melancholy end, she thus writes— “I called several times upon poor Mr Dyer and at last I saw him and ascertained that he had no money on behalf of the Serampore Mission in the name of Miss Angus”—You will find the entry in question in Page 219 of the Bap Mag for April 1840 placed among Receipts from Newcastle under the head of  ‘Contributions’ thus “Miss Angus for Serampore 1£.1s.0d.”

   It is perhaps right to mention that I forwarded by Mr [Flaxman?] of Adelaide a report of our Society in 1839 to Mr G Angus whom I knew to have been an old & dear friend of my late revered Parent—whence the Donation may have proceeded.

   Should you on investigation deem me a just claimant I shall feel obliged by your forwarding the sum in question to my Sister Mrs Capt Havelock now in England who may be heard of at the Chambers of my brother Mr Marshman 1 Inner Temple Lane

               I am

                 Sir

                     Your obedt Sert

                                 Rachel S. Voigt

                                             Secy S L B Socty

Text: MAW, Box 39, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Rachel Voigt was the daughter of Hannah and Joshua Marshman. She married the chief medical officer for Serampore and spent many years assisting in the educational work begun by her mother. John Dyer (1783-1841) was the first full-time secretary of the BMS; he drowned on 22 July 1841. George Fife Angas (1789-1878) was originally from Newcastle and the Baptist church led by Richard Pengilly. He was instrumental in the founding of the Colony of South Australia, serving as a director for both the South Australian Company and the South Australian Bank. He eventually emigrated to South Australia in 1851. Rachel's brother, John Clark Marshman (1794-1877), assisted for many years in the work at Serampore and became, like his father, a significant writer, linguist, and educator.