J. E. Henderson: The Heart of an Honest Servant

 

John Edward Henderson of Montego Bay

Calvary Baptist Church

J. E. Henderson was born to George Henderson and Mary Ann Henderson, nee Kinghorn, on March 11, 1816 in Hoxton, Middlesex, England.

On July 21, 1840, John Henderson married Ann Ashton in a ceremony at Hackney in Middlesex. The couple gave birth to seven children – four daughters, Isabella (b. 1812), Annabella (b.1814), Mary Ann and Jane Elizabeth and three sons: John Edward (b. 1816), George Richard (b. 1818), William Thomas (b. 1825). Jane Elizabeth became the wife of Baptist minister Caleb Edward Randall, a former JBU Chairman, who later changed his denominational allegiance to the Disciples of Christ, among whom he exercised outstanding leadership, starting in 1886. Jane’s sister, Annabella, established and operated a Book Store in Montego Bay until 1934, the year she died.

Henderson received theological training at Stepney College (now, Regent’s Park College, Oxford), and BMS commissioned him a missionary to Jamaica on July 23, 1840 at the Waltham Abbey Church in Essex.

Henderson and his wife journeyed to Jamaica, arriving at Annatto Bay in 1840 to commence his missionary career. God richly rewarded his 41 years of service in Jamaica.

He began his ministry by substituting in Falmouth for William Knibb who was away from the island. Upon Knibb’s return, he went to Manchioneal in 1841 to assist John Kingdon. Later, J E Henderson served at Annotto Bay, after which he relocated to Hoby Town (now Waldensia), a witness started by Walter Dendy and Benjamin Bull Dexter. The membership of the church at Waldensia then stood at 424, with 350 inquirers. 

It was while Henderson was in Waldensia that an outbreak of cholera in the 1850s devastated Jamaica.  Henderson claimed that the outbreak killed some 3,000 persons in the Waldensia community, nearly 200 of whom were his own church members. According to the missionary, many succumbed to cholera on account of their lack of proper nutrition, which rendered them physically incapable of dealing with whatever disease might be rampant at any time.

Falmouth fell into his sphere of responsibility in 1845 and, in 1847, when Henderson was still in Trelawny, he wrote to the BMS Committee, “I am sorry I cannot agree to allow a portion of the missionary fund that will be raised by the church here to be applied to the paying of a missionary’s expenses for the church at Jericho. The church at Jericho is large and they are well able to raise all that is necessary for the purpose. Should you resolve to give a portion of the funds of the missionary Union for this purpose, I shall exert my influence to induce the church here and at Unity, to contribute to some special object.”

Henderson did not endear himself to the BMS Committee with these remarks. Not surprisingly, he sometimes felt ostracized. In 1857, he wrote “I sometimes wish I had as many friends at Moorgate Street [where the BMS headquarters was located] as some others.”

In 1850, Henderson had signed a joint letter of resignation from four ministers of the Western Union which opened with the following observation, “We have frequently united in statements made by the Baptist Western Union in reference to the painful position of the affairs of our Mission in this island, and cannot but regret that there appears to be no prospect of any steps being taken which are likely, permanently, to remove the evils we deplore, or alter the circumstances of our position so painful and humiliating and requiring  measures for their effectual removal which we have no hope of seeing adopted by the [BMS] Committee.”  The letter writers expressed their conviction that the British public had failed to appreciate the situation they were still prepared to send men into. According to Henderson, “the positive refusal of the Committee to help in any way, [was compelling him] to abandon the work.”

While serving in Montego Bay, Henderson joined Rev. Edwin Palmer and others in encouraging and supporting the establishment of Penny Banks among children in Jamaica as a way of instilling the value of thrift in the young. He was very much seized with the need for the people to cultivate self-help. In 1875, he was one of the directors of the Jamaica Cooperative Society. He was also once a member of the Dry Harbour District School Board.  

With the record of work Henderson had piled up, both Baptist churches in Montego Bay, First Baptist and Second Baptist, united in extending an invitation to him to become their pastor. At that time, the two churches shared a positive relationship, which was broken in 1854. The breakdown has been attributed to Rev. James Reid, who had attached himself to First Baptist after his controversial years at Thompson Town in Clarendon. In a vote, most of the church members had requested Reid’s resignation, but Reid refused to heed the request. As a result of this, 700 of the members of First Baptist left the church.

Henderson ended up accepting the call to Second (now, Calvary) Baptist Church which, by then, had outgrown the older First Baptist Church.  He succeeded Rev George Hands who had resigned in August, 1853. In addition to serving at Second Baptist, Henderson took charge of the Watford Hill Baptist Church, previously under Rev Edward Hewitt’s leadership. Henderson’s ministry in Montego Bay ended when he retired from ministry in 1881.

During his years at First Baptist, Henderson worked assiduously to restore friendly relations between First and Second Baptist. In this, he secured no sympathy or support from Reid.

In wider Baptist family in Jamaica, J. E. Henderson of Montego Bay was classified with Walter Dendy and John Clarke of Brown’s Town as early principal shapers of JBU. He was elected to do five separate one-year terms as JBU chairman. He also served for many years as Treasurer of the Jamaica Baptist Missionary Society (JBMS). He went on several deputations on behalf of JBMS, including one to Haiti with Ellis Fray. This resulted in George Angus serving as JBMS missioner to that country in 1874.

Henderson served efficiently as Editor of the Jamaica Baptist Reporter and, when JBU planned the Jubilee of British Baptist involvement in Jamaica, he was selected as one of the seven-member planning committee, comprising John Clark, Walter Dendy, D. J. East, Ellis Fray, James Phillippo, with Edward Hewitt as the chairman.

Henderson’s 44 years of missionary work in Jamaica, which ended in 1881, were enormously blessed by God. His modelled the heart of a servant of God who was tireless in the ministry his Lord had committed to him.

George Richard Henderson: What a Legacy

 

George Richard Henderson of Bethtephil, St James  

Bethtephil Baptist Church

G.R. Henderson was born to George and Mary Henderson in London, England on April 12, 1818.  After being commissioned by the General Baptist Missionary Society in England, he commenced service in Jamaica in 1842. In Jamaica, he met and married Caroline Rose Drayton. The couple raised nine children, several of whom either became ministers or married ministers.

Henderson’s main place of ministry was the Bethtephil/Hastings circuit. The Bethtephil Church was once in Retirement, but later, under the leadership of Rev Peter Schoburg, was relocated to Chatham in St James. A faithful pastor, Henderson built up the churches and helped instil in them a passion for mission.

After he retired, Henderson went to live quietly at Bariffe Hall in St Mary, where he died on June 7, 1898. After his death, Henderson’s widow went to reside with G. E. Henderson, her son, in Brown’s Town. Four years later, Mrs. Henderson passed away on July 17, 1902, after completing sixty years of service in Jamaica. Her primary area of ministry was in teaching.

The Hendersons’ contribution to JBU-associated churches is hard to overestimate. In 1889, while G. R. Henderson was serving at Kettering (Duncans), Trelawny, G. E. Henderson was pastor at Brown’s Town, Bethany, Sturge Town and Stepney, W. D. Henderson at Port Maria, Oracabessa and Mt Lebanon in St Mary, and C. E. Henderson at Spanish Town and Sligoville.

An entire blogpost will be devoted to G. E. Henderson of Brown’s Town, who was twice JBU chairman. The same could be done for W. D. Henderson, whose farewell service in 1930 at Friendship Baptist Church in St Mary took place after his 47 years of service in the circuit. For nearly 60 years, W. D. Henderson served the Oracabessa and Islington Baptist Churches. For part of that period, he also pastored the Port Maria, Oxford, Three Hills and Hampstead churches. When he died in 1947, he had enjoyed 15 years of retirement and was in his 97^th year. W. D. Henderson was once Chairman of the Port Maria Loan Bank and President of the Oracabessa Citizens’ Association. He was JBU Chairman for several terms. Meanwhile, J. R. Henderson served faithfully at Ocho Rios and St Ann’s Bay. Another of G. R. Henderson’s sons, Dr George Courtnay Henderson, was District Medical Officer for Gordon Town. In 1885, he resigned this office and commenced a successful medical practice in Kingston.

Of course, there was also John E. Henderson, the brother of G. R. Henderson, who was a missionary from the United Kingdom who commenced serving in Jamaica in 1840 and whose main place of work was Montego Bay. An entire blogpost will be devoted to his contribution, which includes five terms as JBU Chairman

After he retired, G. R. Henderson went to live quietly at Bariffe Hall in St Mary, where he died on June 7, 1898. After her husband’s death, Mary, G.R. Henderson’s widow, went to reside with her son in Brown’s Town, where she passed away on July 17, 1902, after completing sixty years of service in Jamaica. Her primary area of ministry was teaching.

 

 

James Reid: Ministering Amidst Controversy

 

                                                            Thompson Town Baptist Church

 

James Reid was a Scotsman from Dumblane. In 1836, he applied to the BMS for missionary service after studies at the University of Glasgow. He was accepted and he sailed for Jamaica, arriving in Kingston on March 13, 1837.

His coming to serve as a BMS missionary in the country resulted from earnest appeals to BMS by Rev. H. C. Taylor, BMS missionary in Old Harbour. According to BMS, “growing inability, through age and infirmities” was preventing Taylor from satisfactorily meeting the needs of the churches under his care. In addition, Taylor assured BMS that “the churches in Vere [and] Clarendon, having nearly surmounted the pecuniary difficulties attending the erection of their new chapels, were both able and willing to take on themselves the maintenance of a pastor.” In response, the BMS Committee sent “Mr. James Reid, late of the University of Glasgow, and for several years laboriously and usefully connected with the City Mission there [having] designated him to his important work, on the evening of December 29 [1837], at the Baptist Chapel in Hope Street, Glasgow, of which church he was a member.”

Reid’s first posting was in the parishes of Vere and Clarendon, where he had responsibility for oversight of the churches at Hayes and Ebenezer, Four Paths. In 1838, he initiated Baptist witness in Thompson Town, which was a community named for George Thompson, a member of the Jamaica House of Assembly. Reid led the church in Thompson Town to erect a building which was opened and dedicated on August 10, 1840.

It was while he lived in Four Paths that Reid met and married Miss Margaret Barrett, a sister of Rev William Garland Barrett of the London Missionary Society (BMS), who served as pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Four Paths.

Reid and his fellow BMS missionaries in Jamaica got into quarrels over membership admission practice in the Jamaica Baptist Union (JBU). Reid was severe in his judgment of the way in which the Baptist churches processed candidates for baptism. He believed that often inquirers did not manifest sufficient proof of conversion. By observing his congregants in daily life, he also developed some scepticism about the strength of their discipleship.  In 1842, Reid wrote a letter in which he criticized the method Baptists in Jamaica employed in admitting persons to church membership and apportioned blame on the BMS leadership in Jamaica for what he regarded as poor policy direction. Reid’s letter appeared in a British publication called the Morning Journal.

Reid’s criticism mirrored those of his brother-in-law who had campaigned excessively against church membership practices in JBU. So severe were the objections that W. G. Barrett spread against Jamaica Baptists that Samuel Green, a member of the BMS Committee issued a publication to refute the claims. The 32-page essay, Baptist Mission in Jamaica: A Review of the Rev W. G. Barrett’s Pamphlet entitled A Reply to the Circular of the Baptist Missionary Committee (London: Houlston & Stoneman & G & W Dyer, 1842) was a carefully prepared refutation of Barrett’s claims.

Reid was recalled to England, but did not heed the order. So, BMS terminated his appointment one of their missionaries.

Reid’s connection with BMS was renewed after the visit to Jamaica by BMS Secretary Edward Underhill and Rev J. T. Brown of Northhampton, over 1859 and 1860. Their mission was to investigate the religious and social condition of the emancipated people. The deputation from BMS claimed that they visited every Baptist church in Jamaica and they had discussions with Reid, resulting in the minister regaining his status as a BMS missionary to Jamaica.

Not long after this, in 1847, the First (now Burchell) Baptist Church in Montego Bay was facing a crisis. To resolve it, they invited Reid to come and work among them Their desire was that Reid would help to heal the breach in the church that was rapidly heading for a clear schism. Instead of establishing the peace of the congregation, Reid led the First Baptist church through tumultuous years. At one time, a significant majority of the church membership voted to request Reid’s departure, which he ignored. This led 700 members to withdraw from the church. Reid remained unmoved. He stayed on to serve as pastor of the First Baptist Church and worked under circumstances of much controversy.

After spending 30 years as pastor of the First Baptist Church, Reid went on to serve as pastor of the St Margaret’s Bay Church in Portland. Reid remained in Jamaica until his death in 1879. He completed 42 years of service in JBU and became the joint third longest serving BMS missionary to Jamaica.

 

James Finlayson: Trailblazer

 

Penshurst Estate, four miles from Brown's Town in the civil parish of St Ann, was one of the places where enslavers exploited the labour of Africans during the 19th century. Available records show that, between 1809 and 1832, the enslaved population at Penshurst numbered between 23 and 50. One of these enslaved persons was James Williams, whose contribution to the process leading to the end of apprenticeship in Jamaica deserves to be celebrated by all freedom-loving people.

Thanks to the vision and kindness of Joseph Sturge, the English Quaker abolitionist, Williams travelled to England when he was only 18 years old and there, he shared a firsthand account of what life was like on slavery plantations in Jamaica before and during the period of apprenticeship. Williams had endured harsh and unjust treatment at Penshurst and his account of the experience of enslaved people in Jamaica was spread widely for the benefit of the British public. Williams’ autobiography, “A Narrative of Events since the First of August, 1834,” offers a gripping account that can stir the hearts of people with any semblance of humanity.

Another significant person who was exploited at Penshurst was James Finlayson. This man was born into slavery at the estate and, although he was a so-called “domestic slave,” he, like the others who worked on the coffee plantation at Penshurst, had to face the hardships suffered by all who were regarded as part of the property belonging to Mr. Gilbert Senior and his sister, Sarah Jane.

According to common practice at Penshurst and on some other plantations in Jamaica, enslavers made small plots of land available to the enslaved where they could cultivate crops for their personal use and, where they reaped a surplus, they were allowed to sell it on Saturdays or Sundays with the planters’ permission. 

During the period of apprenticeship, Finlayson, through his own industry, would gather enough honey either from hives of bees that he kept or by collecting wild honey available in the caves at Penshurst. He would then make his way on foot to Falmouth, 25 miles away to find market for his honey.

On a Sunday in 1828, he set out on the long walk to Falmouth to sell his honey. On entering the town, he sought market at the Wesleyan Church in the town. There, the minister reprimanded Finlayson for breaking the Sabbath and sent him away. This left the vendor quite embarrassed. Moving on, he saw a group of persons who looked like him going into a building and learned that someone had come to the place to tell the people the Word of God. Finlayson stood at the door and listened to a sermon based on Psalm 4:2, “Oh ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame?” The preacher was James Mann, whom the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS) of London (now BMS World) had commissioned as one of their missionaries to Jamaica. Mann arrived in 1826 and went to serve in Falmouth.

Mann explained that human beings were made in the image of God and that by living in disobedience to God, people had turned God’s glory into shame. This was the first time Finlayson was entering a church; it was the first sermon he ever listened to. Yet, he felt convicted by the message and, leaving his precious honey behind, he returned to Penshurst to tell his peers that he had heard the Word of God.

The group braved persecution in order to have regular meetings to discuss the message of the Gospel.

Finlayson and the enslaved Africans who heard his message yearned for more knowledge of the things of God. Because no one was able to give them further explanation of the Gospel, he travelled to a mission station in Ocho Rios to confer with Samuel Bromley, a missionary sent to Jamaica by the General Baptist Missionary Society (GBMS) in England.  Bromley was soon to leave the country on account of the decision of the GBMS to end its work in Jamaica, turning it over to the BMS.  The work in Ocho Rios would be joined with that in St Ann’s Bay, where Samuel Nichols was the BMS missionary.

Eventually, Finlayson received spiritual help from Nichols, by whom he was baptized in 1829 and became a member of the Baptist Church in St Ann’s Bay. Finlayson faithfully covered the fifteen-mile journey from Penshurst to St Ann’s Bay every Sunday and he grew in his faith. It appears that Nichols arranged for Finlayson to learn to read and write.

Acknowledging the obligation Christians have to share their faith, Finlayson continued to  bear witness to his co-workers at Penshurst. Soon, he extended his work to the people working on the neighbouring properties at Knapdale and Hilton Hill. From time to time, they met in a cave near Brown’s Town to keep their services secret. This cave is known as Finlayson’s Cave.

Finlayson preached the Gospel and after persons made a profession of faith, he took them to St Ann’s Bay and enrolled them in Enquirers’ Class. In time, they were baptized and Nichols entrusted these believers to the care of Finlayson who was the leader of the “class” in Penshurst.

In January 1832, martial law was declared and religious persecution was renewed in Jamaica. Falmouth was a place where enslaved persons were punished for the slightest of infractions. Finlayson placed his Bible and his books in a box and hid them in a cave at Penshurst. He went there to read his Bible and for devotions. Three weeks later after he started doing this, he was sent to Falmouth for trial. Before he left Penshurst, all the “children of the Class” (i.e. his church members) went to see him to say their farewells since they never expected to see him again. Finlayson sang for them the hymn, “I’m not ashamed to own my God or to defend his cause”— number 590 from Wilcox Collection, which was used in the church at St Ann’s Bay. In Falmouth, his life was spared and he returned to Penshurst and called a meeting where he shared this thought with his people: “This is a trial of our faith. What will we do? Shall we draw back? God forbid!”

Finlayson and his people continued to meet, holding communion every three months. Soon, the estate managers discovered Finlayson’s secret midnight meetings in a cave and Finlayson’s master summoned him, had him arrested, placed in stocks and sent to the House of Correction in St Ann’s Bay. He was sentenced to two months in the “workhouse” (prison), where he was flogged. This had no adverse effect on Finlayson’s faith.

Persuaded by Finlayson, Samuel Nichols, the pastor of the St Ann’s Bay Baptist Church, paid a visit to the group of believers gathered by Finlayson at Penshurst in 1830. His first visit was on December 12, 1830. Nichols also travelled to Brown’s Town and there he decided that this could become the centre of a new Baptist witness. A year later, Nichols prepared papers to allow for the transfer the 24 members of the Finlayson group from membership in the St Ann’s Bay Church to form part of a fledgling Brown’s Town Baptist Church. One person was transferred from the Baptist Church in Falmouth together with nineteen who were baptized on June 5, 1831, the day the Brown’s Town Baptist Church was constituted officially with forty-four members. Finlayson and those gathered around him formed the nucleus of what was to become the Brown’s Town Baptist Church, with Finlayson becoming the first deacon there.

During the period of apprenticeship, James Finlayson, after he had saved up enough for the purpose, purchased his freedom. On a Sunday in 1865, Finlayson was in church, as was his custom. During the service, he fell ill and after about an hour, he “exchanged the abode of this earth for the palaces of heaven.” Gone, but not forgotten.

 

Thomas Burchell, “The Gentle Rebel”

 

                                                          (now Burchell) Baptist Church

Thomas Burchell was one of the five most significant BMS missionaries to serve in Jamaica. He was born in Tetbury, Gloucestershire, England, on Christmas day 1799, trained for the mission field at Bristol Baptist College, set apart as a missionary on October 14, 1823, sailed for the island of Jamaica two days later and arrived in the country on January 15, 1824 with Hannah, his wife and partner in God’s service.  His first preaching appointments were at Crooked Spring and Montego Bay. Having been without adequate pastoral oversight for some time, with the illness of Moses Baker, the people in these churches welcomed Burchell joyfully.

After arriving in Jamaica, it did not take long for the Burchells to increase the size of their family. Unfortunately, however, their first child, a son, died soon after his birth in September 1824. The Burchells also faced health challenges which forced their return to England in April, 1826. They returned to Jamaica in January,1827. This was not the only time the Burchells’ health challenges forced them to return to England to treatment. Together with his family, Burchell also fled to America in 1831 when he was in danger of losing his life. Yet, what a vast contribution he made to the British Baptist mission in Jamaica.

Burchell partnered his friend William Knibb to help advance the emancipation cause. In 1832, he accompanied Knibb on his tour of England to advocate in gatherings large and small for the end of the cruel institution of slavery. Burchell delivered many lectures against slavery with good effect.

British Baptist biblical scholar, Gordon Catherall dubbed Burchell “the gentle rebel.” Catherall wrote:

 

Much of the great work [William Knibb did] in Jamaica would have been impossible had it not been for two people, his wife [Mary] and Thomas Burchell…. Burchell was a man of many parts who, because of his somewhat quieter nature is not so easily recognized as being a revolutionary as was [his] friend Knibb…. It was Burchell’s thought and Knibb’s prophetic application of that thought that gave the dynamic to the Baptist mission during the eventful years in Jamaica, 1831-45.

 Burchell was Knibb’s trusted adviser and theological consultant. His work to end slavery was only a part of his mission. He gave himself with great zeal to the work of organizing and reorganizing churches and serving the people of God selflessly.

Burchell formally constituted the church at Gurney’s Mount on March 21, 1830 and he contributed to the formation or re-establishment of the following churches – Falmouth, Savanna-la-Mar, Ridgeland (Fullers Field), Bass Grove, Watford Hill, Sandy Bay, Rio Bueno, and Stewart Town. Burchell gave leadership to the rebuilding programme of the following churches – Fletcher’s Grove, Shortwood and Bethel Town. He also led the rebuilding programme for the First Baptist Church in Montego Bay, now named in his honour, after it had been torched by agents of the Colonial Church Union.

Burchell’s preaching ministry spanned the parishes of St James, Westmoreland, Hanover and Trelawny. Several of the Baptist churches in these parishes benefited from Burchell’s effort to establish “Sabbath and day schools” for the recently emancipated people of Jamaica. At Mount Carey, he drew upon his earlier training in physiology and anatomy and organized a clinic where he initiated free health services to people in need.

Burchell trained locals to serve as teachers at a school he organized in Montego Bay and extended the benefit to persons recommended by Knibb who, at that stage, contemplated starting a school in Falmouth. Burchell suffered persecution, including imprisonment by those who believed that no Baptist should be allowed to live and work in Montego Bay. He was among the persons who were victimized by the Colonial Church Union that worked for the Burchell destruction of all non-conformist churches in Jamaica. When martial law was declared in 1832, Burchell was arrested and detained on board a ship in the Montego Bay harbour. With fellow missionary Francis Gardiner, he was jailed for 33 days.

 

Burchell seemed to have had boundless energy. His work as a pastor, an educator, and a health care giver, and staunch anti-slavery fighter, did not dwarf his contribution to institutional    development in Jamaica Baptist witness. He made a distinguished contribution to the operation of the Jamaica Baptist Association, the fellowship of BMS missionaries in Jamaica. He helped form and develop the Western Baptist Union (or Association), but died three years before the eventual formation of the Jamaica Baptist Union in 1849.

Health problems ended Burchell’s ministry in Jamaica. When, in 1846, he travelled to England in search of medical care, this was to be his last visit to his homeland where he died in his 47^th year on May 16, 1846.

On his passing, the Baptist Missionary Society unanimously approved a resolution in tribute to Burchell:

 

Called by divine grace to the ministry of the gospel, and, under the influence of Christian zeal, resolving to exercise that ministry among the negro population of Jamaica, at a time when they were held in cruel bondage, he was sent to that island as in the year 1823. His earnest piety, his bold and fruitful preaching, his sympathy with the oppressed, and his efforts to mitigate when he could not redress their wrongs, together with his patient endurance of toil and persecution for their sakes, greatly endeared him to the flock which he was instrumental in gathering to the fold of Christ; while his manly sense, his steady judgment, his prudence, decision, and firmness, gave him influence among the churches at large, and qualified him to use it with personal honour and public advantage.

Hannah Burchell, his wife, decided to remain in Jamaica where cancer ended her life ten years after her husband’s death. She passed away at Mt Carey in the house where her daughter, Esthrana (sometimes called Esthreana or Esthriana), and son in law, Rev. Edward Hewitt, resided. On the occasion of Esthrana’s baptism, Burchell had written to his brother celebrating his joy in baptizing her with some 70 others in the Great River, four miles from Mount Carey before a congregation of some two to three thousand. The sole surviving child of the Burchells, Esthrana never went to live in England. She remained in Jamaica and spent her last days in Kingston, where she died and was buried.

In Memoirs of Thomas Burchell, 1849, Burchell’s brother, William Fitzer Burchell, has produced a compelling account of the life and ministry of his brother. We join him in gratefully recalling the gift that Tomas Burchell was to Jamaicans in general and Jamaica Baptists in particular.