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.