Frank & Annie Joseland -- Amoy Congregational Union

Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Re: Frank and Annie Joseland, Amoy Mission (if you have info on them, or old photos of Amoy, please share them with us!).

Letter from R. Dixon (response follows):
March 7, 2008: Hi Dr Bill, My great great grandfather was a missionary in Amoy for about 20 years, (I think he left in 1901). Have you ever heard of the Congregational Union? I thought that your website may have some info on his work, but couldnt find anything. I was planning a trip to Amoy this year to trace the past, but there just isnt any info available! My great great grandmother died there also, but I believe that the grave site was destroyed by the Chinese in a protest of some kind in the 1930's. Any info you have about the Congregational Union would be much appreciated. His name was Rev. Frank P Joseland. Kind Regards R. Dixon.

My response:
Hi Robbie,

So nice to hear from you! Sorry that I don't have anything about Joseland yet. I do this in my spare time, and it is slow going. Only a few days ago I received some photos from a Russian Orthodox Priest in Hong Kong. Amazing what all went on here.

I will ad more info when I can, but in the meantime... the Congregational Union was formed about 1870 from a dozen churches or so of the London Missionary Society in the Amoy Mission. There are numerous accounts of this, though not much that I've found directly about the Joselands. Read about the Union in Philip Wilson Pitcher's "In and About Amoy." Also see The Chronicles of the London Missionary Society, 1901, which has Frank Joseland's article, "The Amoy Congregational Union." The 1902 issue has an article about the Amoy Congregational Union, by Una Long, of the Van Riebeeck Society

Frank is also mentioned in The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society, 1896, and 1903. "Christian Faith and Life" (1906) has more information on this.

Also try, "A Century of Protestant Missions in China (1807-1907) for info on the Union (though none on Frank, I think).

I know that there are numerous mentions of Frank Joseland (and his wife Annie) in the "Chinese Recorder," which you can find probably in a library there? There are a few dozen references to Frank and Annie Joseland in Kathleen Lodwick 's Index of the Chinese Recorder. And David Cheung, in "Christianity in Modern China," references Frank's article about the Amoy work," (I'd love to have a copy of it if you ever come across it!).

Kenneth Scott Latourette's "A History of Christian Missions in China" mentions briefly the Union.

Since I'm in China, I do not have access to these. I'd love to have a digital copy of the Chinese Recorder. Someday...

If you have any information about them that you could share, and that I could upload (especially old photos of the Joselands, and Amoy), I'd really appreciate it. The more we have online, and that people share, the more likely others can find what they're looking for as well, and contribute to preserving the Amoy Mission's rich legacy.

Best wishes with your research.

Bill

REPLY to my E-mail:

Hi,

I found some more basic information:

Ordained Sep 14 1887 at Congregational Church, Angel St., Worcester
Sailed Oct 31 1887 and arrived at Amoy Jan 5 1888
Married Nov 7 1888 at Union Church Hong Kong, Annie Lucy Darwent, Church member of Congregational Church Devizes who sailed to England Sep 22 1888
In 1891 he removed to Chiang Chiu taking the place of Mr Ross
Mrs Joseland died at Amoy Nov 24 1908
Dec 1913 Mr Joseland retired, leaving Amoy and settled in Melbourne Australia

I found a lot of info located at the School of Oriental and African Studies library in London - a lot of articles he wrote, and what looks like a book: Ting-Chiu : the story of a Chinese "forward movement" / by Frank P. Joseland, of the London Mission, Amoy, South China. Unfortunately I have not been able to locate in Australia yet. I'll keep looking around in Australia. Would there be anything in Xiamen Universities library?

Answer: no! There is almost nothing in Xiamen about any of this; everything was destroyed by Japanese, Cultural Revolution, etc. That's why I have to get everything from abroad.... So, again, if anyone out there has information and photos they can share, I'd really appreciate it . And read more at the Amoy Mission pages:

http://www.amoymagic.com/Amoymission1.htm
www.amoymagic.com