Definition
Mary Ann Aldersey (1797–1868) was the first British female missionary to China. Her letters and journal entries chronicled her work and journeys. She founded, ran, and taught in multiple schools in South-East Asia. Her mission work and writing was influential in future generations of evangelicalism and Western education in Asia and across the globe.
Introduction
Intrepid, resourceful, and persevering, Mary Ann Aldersey (1797–1868), the first British female missionary to China, wrote letters and journal entries that chronicled her work and journeys that have been collected in A Woman Pioneer in China: The Life of Mary Ann Aldersey (1932), edited by E. Aldersey White. Born on the 24th of June, 1797, to Joseph and Elizabeth Aldersey (who attended the Episcopal Church presided by Rev. John Eyre, one of the Founders of the London Missionary Society (LMS) and its first Honorary Secretary), Aldersey’s interest in foreign missions began when her nurse married a Church Missionary...
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References
Aldersey, M. Letter from Ningpo, 6 January 1846. In A woman pioneer in China: the life of Mary Ann Aldersey (1932), ed. E. Aldersey White, 35. London: The Livingstone Press.
———. Letter from Ningpo, 19 July 1848. 1849a. In Christian school at Ningpo for the education of Chinese females. Church Missionary Gleaner IX(7): 76–77.
———. Letter, 25 Oct. 1848. 1849b. In Christian school at Ningpo for the education of Chinese females. Church Missionary Gleaner IX(7): 77–78.
———. Journal Entry, 14th July 1851. In A woman pioneer in China: the life of Mary Ann Aldersey (1932), ed. E. Aldersey White, 39. London: The Livingstone Press.
Ellis, H.W. 1883. China. In Our eastern sisters and their missionary helpers, 107–120. London: The Religious Tract Society.
MacGillivray, D., ed. 1907. A century of Protestant missions in China (1807–1907), 457–458. Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press.
Murray, J. 1992. Anglican and Protestant missionary societies in Great Britain: Their use of women as missionaries from the late 18th to the late 19th century. Exchange 21: 1–20.
Seton, R. 2013. Western daughters in eastern lands: British missionary women in Asia, 16. Santa Barbara/Denver/Oxford: Praeger.
White, E.A., ed. 1932. A woman pioneer in China: The life of Mary Ann Aldersey. London: The Livingstone Press.
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Hu, E.T. (2022). Aldersey, Mary Ann. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_415-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_415-1
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