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1789 MISSIONARY TO SLAVES IN BAHAMAS. Abolitionist Bishop of London, Bielby Porteus Requests Passage for First Missionary.

1789 MISSIONARY TO SLAVES IN BAHAMAS. Abolitionist Bishop of London, Bielby Porteus Requests Passage for First Missionary.

$850.00 USD
$850.00 USD
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A wonderful 1789 original document in which the abolitionist Bishop of London, Bielby Porteus [1731-1809] requests passage for Rev. William Gordon, the first Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts [S.P.G.F.P.] missionary Stationed on the Island of Exuma in the Bahama Islands. 

Arriving in 1790, he served the British residents of the Bahamas, but devoted himself to the religious and material welfare of the slave population of the Island. In addition, be used his own income to purchase a small boat, which he used to travel and preach Long Island and Cat Island, which also had no missionary. 

His efforts were met with success. He preached, encouraging enslaved persons who had come to Christ under the Methodists, and seeing new disciples baptized. His need for fellow-workers grew. Unfortunately, Gordon himself and two other missionaries were in a nearly continuous state of peril with regard to their health. His two co-workers died and he was forced to transfer to Harbor Island and Eleuthera where there was better access to sanitation and medical services. This was not before he was able to open schools and churches which served the enslaved populations throughout the 19th century, and the Rev. William Gordon school in Exuma remains active today. 

The text as follows. In a very good state.
Fulham. May 25th, 1789.
My Lords,

The Reverend William Gordon being licensed to perform the Ministerial Office of a Priest in the Island of Exuma, one of the Bahama Islands, and on his Departure thither, I make it my Request, that your Lordship's will be pleased to order him his Majesty's Bounty of Twenty Pounds to defray the Charge of his Passage to that Island, and am

My Lordship's
Most obedient
& most humblt sevt
B London

 

To the Right Honorable the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty's Treasury

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