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The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of
Religious Knowledge, Philip Schaff Vol. II
(abridged and edited for
clarity) |
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WILLIAM
CAREY (1761–1834)
Baptist
missionary and Orientalist
 William Carey was
born at Paulerspury, Northamptonshire, Eng., Aug. 17, 1761 and died at
Serampur, India, June 9, 1834. By baptism, a member of the Established Church,
he was early in life convinced of the Scriptural authority for the Baptist
views, and joined this sect, in which he soon became a preacher. His
congregations were very poor, and he supported himself and family by
shoemaking. But his thirst for knowledge was strong; and he managed,
notwithstanding the pressure of poverty, to acquire Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and a
goodly amount of other useful learning, especially in natural history and
botany.
His
attention was turned to the heathen, and he saw plainly his duty to go to them.
On Oct. 2, 1792, largely through his exertions, the first Baptist missionary
society was founded; and on June 13, 1793, he and his family sailed for India,
accompanied by John Thomas, who had formerly lived in Bengal.
On reaching Bengal
early in 1794, Carey and his companion lost all their property in the Hugli (a
town and district of British India, in the Burdwan division of Bengal); but,
having received the charge of an indigo-factory at Malda, he cut off his
pecuniary (monetary) connection with the missionary society, and began in
earnest what, instead of regular missionary labor, was to be the work of his
life—the study of and translation both from and into the languages of
India.
In 1799
the factory was closed; and he went with Thomas to Kidderpur, where he had
purchased a small indigo-plantation. Here, joined by Marshman and Ward, he
started, under bright hopes a mission, but soon encountered the opposition of
the Indian government, which forbade the mission's enlargement, and compelled
its removal, at a great financial loss, to Serampur, a Danish settlement
(1800), where it took a fresh lease of life.
For some time Carey and Thomas had been
diligently at work upon a version of the New Testament in Bengali. In 1801 it
was published by the press Carey instituted. About the same time the Marquis of
Wellesley appointed him professor of Oriental languages in the Fort William
College, which the marquis had founded at Calcutta for the instruction of the
younger members of the British Indian civil service. Carey held this position
for thirty years, and taught Bengali, Mahrati, and Sanskrit. He wrote articles
upon the natural history and botany of India for the Asiatic Society, to which
he was elected, 1805, and thus made practical application of acquisitions of
former years; but this was only a part, and by far the less valuable part, of
his work.
That
which has given him his undying fame was his translation of the Bible, in whole
or in part, either alone or with others, into some twenty-six Indian languages.
The Serampur press, under his direction, rendered the Bible accessible to more
than three hundred million human beings. Besides, he prepared grammars and
dictionaries of several tongues; e.g., Mahratta Grammar, 1805; Sanscrit
Grammar, 1806; Mahratta Dictionary, 1810; Bengalee Dictionary, 1818; and a
dictionary of all Sanskrit-derived languages, which unhappily was destroyed by
a fire in the printing establishment in 1812. Later students have discovered
errors and omissions in these works; but all honor is due to Carey for
"breaking the way," and every inhabitant of India is his debtor.
Bibliography: John Taylor, Biographical and
Literary Notices of William Carey. Bibliographical Notices of Works . . . ,
Northampton, 1886; J. C. Marshman. Life and Times of Carey, Marshman and Ward,
2 vols., London, 1859; J. Culross, William Carey, New York, 1882; George Smith,
Life of William Carey, London, 1887; H. O. Dwight, H. A. Tupper, and E. M.
Bliss, Encyclopædia of Missions, pp. 133–134, New York, 1904; DNB,
ix. 77. |
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