IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0102 MS 380601
Held at: School of Oriental and African Studies
Title: Scott, Harry
Date(s): (1884-1887 [1935-1936]) [1992]
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 3 volumes
Name of creator(s): Scott | Harry | 1858-1937 | missionary
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born in Walsall (Staffordshire), 1858; studied at Cheshunt College (Cambridge), 1878-1883; appointed London Missionary Society (LMS) missionary to New Guinea; ordained, married Mary Todhunter (d 1952), and sailed to New Guinea, 1883; settled at Murray Island, Torres Straits; withdrew from the New Guinea mission owing to ill health, 1886; returned to England, 1887; pastor at the Countess of Huntingdon's Crozens Chapel, Hereford, 1889-1892; became Assistant District Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) for the North Metropolitan Area, 1892; Assistant to the Honorary Home Secretary, BFBS, 1894; retired and settled at Shanklin (Isle of Wight), 1915; died in Croydon (Surrey), 1937. Publication: with Samuel McFarlane, published a translation of the Gospels of Mark and John into the Murray Island (Mer) language, Euangelia Mareko ... (Sydney, 1885), with appendix including the catechism and forms for the marriage and burial services.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Typescript transcripts [1992] of circular letters of Harry Scott sent to relatives and friends in England while missionary at Murray Island, Torres Straits, New Guinea, 1884-1887, with his later additions [1935-1936], giving a detailed account of life there, including his missionary work and Biblical translations, the landscape, and local customs.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
Conditions governing access:
Unrestricted.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Contact the Senior Manuscripts Librarian, State Library of New South Wales, for permission to use any extracts.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
The original letters were made into 14 portfolios, with introduction and supplementary material, by Harry Scott in 1935-1936, for circulation to his daughter and sons and their families. The early letters, from December 1883 to June 1884, had by then gone missing. In 1937 the portfolios were dispersed, but preserved by different family members until they were united in 1974 for presentation to the Mitchell Library, Sydney.
Immediate source of acquisition:
Donated in 1994.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
The originals are in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney (Ref: ZML MSS 2901).
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of the London Missionary Society (Ref: CWM/LMS), including letters from individual missionaries, among them Harry Scott (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua Incoming Correspondence); his candidate's papers (Ref: CWM/LMS Candidates' Papers Box 14); a group photograph in New Guinea including Harry Scott and his wife [1880s] (Ref: CWM/LMS Papua Photographs Box 1). SOAS also holds a press cutting about the golden wedding anniversary of Harry Scott and his wife, 1933 (Ref: CBMS/H/PB24 Box 89 File 24 no 179), and an obituary, 1937 (Ref: CBMS/H/PB44 Box 109 File 44 no 34).
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Source: LMS Register of Missionaries, ed James Sibree.
Date(s) of descriptions: Jul 2002