Missionaries . . . how to find out about them?

Question

Hi there

Agnes Packer. She was born 25 Sept 1827 to Edward and Sarah Brown Cleaveland in Faversham, Kent. She shows up in the censes of 1841 & 51 living with her parents. Then, presumably she goes overseas to work as a missionary because she shows up again in the Censes of 1901 and 1911 as a retired missionary. She is living with a Jessie Bailey, they are both spinsters. I suspect she was governess to the Bailey family, but I am not sure. I would like to find out where she went to work and if there are records of her, but don't know where to start since know neither where she went nor what missionary organisation she would have been with. Her baptism is recorded in the non-conformist, non-parochial registers.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Can you find out when she arrived back in England and where from?

Noting non-conformism, how about following up non-conformist churches and their missionaries? Do you know which church? That might be a start.

Comments

Thanks for the suggestions. As I understand it, Non-Conformists are anything but CoE. It doesn't narrow the field much.

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I've just checked Faversham. Partridge Lanev Independent doesn't seem to exist any more. Independents often became United Reform (URC).

Currently Faversham seems to have a Baptist church and a Methodist URC, You can Google contact fetails. That's where I would start. You could also try London and Methodist Missionary Societies.

Incidentally, Jessie Bailey is her niece, daughter of her sister Eliza born 1819. In 1871 Eliza is married and described as a missionary's wife. Her husband is not present. Dhe isn't in 1851 or 61 so I assume she may have married abroad. She is in 1841.