Campbell, John

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 CWM/LMS Africa Personal Boxes 3, 5
Held at	: School of Oriental and African Studies   Click here to find out how to view this collection at http://www.soas.ac.uk/Archives/home.html ›
Full title	: Campbell, John
Date(s)	: 1772-1840
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 1 box
Name of creator(s)	: Campbell | John | 1766-1840 | Independent minister, philanthropist and traveller

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, 1766; attended the Royal High School; apprenticed to a goldsmith; helped to found the Religious Tract Society of Scotland, 1793; founded the Missionary Magazine in Edinburgh, 1796; promoted Sunday schools and preached widely; among the founders of societies for 'fallen women' in Edinburgh and Glasgow; interested in the condition of slaves; following the Haldane revival, became a Congregational minister; founded an independent chapel, 'Kingsland', and a school in London; minister at Kingsland from 1802; helped to found the Bible Society; director of the London Missionary Society (LMS); appointed to the first deputation to inspect LMS settlements, in southern Africa; sailed to Cape Town, 1812; the first person to visit the missions inside and outside the colony, travelling extensively and visiting Bethelsdorp, Graaff Reinet, Griqua Town and Lattakoo, and communicating with tribes in other localities, 1812-1814; helped John Anderson to establish a permanent Christian presence among the Griqua people; returned to England with his report and maps of the colony and its hinterland, 1814; with the Rev John Philip, sailed to South Africa on a deputation to regulate the LMS mission, 1818; arrived at Cape Town, 1819; the deputation visited Paarl, Tulbagh, Caldon Institution (Zuurbraak), Pacaltsdorp, Bethelsdorp, and Theopolis, but a war prevented them from travelling further; returned to Cape Town; made long journeys across the colonial frontier, travelling to Griqua Town, New Lattakoo (Kuruman), Old Lattakoo, Meribohwhey, Mashow, Kurreechane, and towns west of Kuruman, 1820; returned to England and resumed his pastorship of Kingsland, 1821; a prolific writer on African missions and a pioneer author of children's books; for many years editor of the religious publication The Youth's Magazine; died, 1840. For further information see Robert Philip, The Life, Times, and Missionary Enterprises of the Rev John Campbell (1841). Publications include: Travels in South Africa (1815); Travels in South Africa: Second Journey (1822).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1772-1840, of and relating to John Campbell, concerning his family, life and work and comprising miscellaneous papers, including certificates and handbills, 1772-1829; miscellaneous correspondence, 1784-1818; correspondence on Campbell's death, 1840; notes for sermons, 1826 and undated; notes on Campbell from the Dictionary of National Biography and genealogy, undated; original sketches from his South African travels, 1813 and undated, and illustrations from his published accounts of his travels, 1815, 1822; proof copy of An Account of the London Missionary Society, c1823; a tract, A Brief Comparison ... of Popery and Protestantism [author unknown; after 1791], with a notebook cover containing odd notes, undated; notebook containing diary entries on an London Missionary Society (LMS) deputation to Norfolk, 1806; New Testament (Edinburgh, 1802) inscribed by John Campbell, 1803, and with a note by him, dated 1839, describing how he preached from it extensively, from Orkney to Cornwall and at the Cape of Good Hope; a tract for children, Cuff, the Negro Boy [by John Campbell, undated].

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

The New Testament and Cuff, the Negro Boy are in Box 5; the other items, arranged in five folders, are in Box 3.

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted.

Conditions governing reproduction:

No publication without written permission. Apply to archivist in the first instance.

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist; detailed typescript list stored with the material.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The papers were deposited with the London Missionary Society and form part of the special series of personal papers of individual LMS missionaries and officers.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited on permanent loan with the records of the London Missionary Society by the Congregational Council for World Mission (later Council for World Mission) in 1973.

Allied Materials

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 John Campbell (Ref: CWM/LMS South Africa Incoming Correspondence); notes and extracts by John Campbell from various journals on South Africa, 1814-1815 (Ref: CWM/LMS South Africa Journals Box 2 Files 41, 43, 47), and a photograph of an oil painting of Campbell (Ref: CWM/LMS General Portraits Box 1). SOAS also holds the papers of James Trenchard Hardyman, including a file on John Campbell, 1812-1947 (Ref: PP MS 63 Box 11 File 33).

The National Library of Scotland, Manuscripts Division, holds 24 items of Campbell's correspondence, 1789-1840 (Ref: MS 10999). The National Portrait Gallery, London, holds a mezzotint portrait of John Campbell by Thomas Hodgetts, after John Renton, published 1819 (Ref: NPG D1189).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: Dictionary of National Biography; Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed Gerald H Anderson (1998); LMS Register of Missionaries, ed James Sibree, appendix; National Register of Archives; National Portrait Gallery website: http://www.npg.org.uk

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
Feb 2002