Maggs Bros.

An informative letter from Samuel Crowther (c.1807-1891) providing much information on the working of the Lagos mission.

Crowther was born in south-west Nigeria to Yoruba parents. He was captured and sold to a Portuguese slave ship in 1822 but freed the same evening by two Royal Navy ships. He was taken to Freetown, where he was educated and later baptized. A trip to England soon followed where he attended the Islington parish school.

He distinguished himself as an interpreter on the ill-fated Niger Expedition of 1841. “The deaths of so many Europeans in the expedition appear to have convinced Crowther that Christianity could only be established in tropical Africa by Africans. The CMS in London, under the visionary Henry Venn, conceived the same idea. Crowther was called to London to train at the CMS Missionary College in Islington and was ordained by the bishop of London in 1843. He then joined the mission in Abeokuta, to preach and teach in Yoruba” (ODNB). By 1857 he’d established stations in Onitsha and Igbebe and was given sole authority of the Niger mission.

In this letter, Crowther thanks Rev. Sheppard for a parcel of goods which reached him just prior to joining the Niger steamer at Lagos en route to Onitsha where he distributed them amongst “the kings and some of the most deserving chiefs who had been friendly to our native teachers.” He mentions the new school there and reports positively: “The reward to these most deserving children had the most desired effect; the careless ones have seen their mistake and foolishness in despising school instruction; the mothers who could not see the advantage of their children coming for education have now their eyes open …” He also mentions how happy the boys who won a spelling contest were with the red bandanas awarded as prizes and thanks the women in Emsworth who donated them.

Crowther was a vital figure in mid-nineteenth-century West Africa. Substantial letters such as this one are scarce indeed.