Pollard, Samuel

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0102 MMS/Special Series/Biographical/China/FBN 29-30 (Boxes 639-640)
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	: Pollard, Samuel
Date(s)	: 1885-1915
Level of description	: Collection (fonds)
Extent	: 2 boxes
Name of creator(s)	: Pollard | Samuel | 1864-1915 | missionary

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

Born in Camelford, Cornwall, 1864; his father, Samuel Pollard, and his mother were preachers with the Bible Christian Church (from 1907 part of the United Methodist Church); converted, c1875; initially prepared for a career in the civil service, but a London conference influenced him to become a missionary, 1885; appointed Bible Christian missionary, 1886; sailed for China, 1887; attended Ganking Language School, 1887; posted to Yunnan province, 1888; went to Chaotung (Zhaotong), where a new station was opened, 1891; married Emmie (née Hainge), 1891; assigned to the provincial capital (now Kunming); engaged in evangelistic work; worked with the Flowery Miao (A-Hmao, a minority tribe), among whom started in Anshun, Kweichow (Guizhou) province, a religious movement which spread to Chaotung, from c1905; Pollard became its most prominent missionary leader; established a centre for thousands of new believers at Shihmenkan; travelled extensively, planting churches, training leaders, and soliciting justice for Miao Christians from officials and landlords; developed a new script which he used to translate the New Testament into the Miao language; died from typhoid fever while in service as a missionary, 1915. Publications: Tight Corners in China (second edition [1913]); with Henry Smith and F J Dymond, The Story of the Miao (1919); In Unknown China: observations, adventures and experiences of a pioneer missionary (1921); Eyes of the Earth: the diary of Samuel Pollard, ed R Elliott Kendall (1954).

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Papers, 1885-1915, of the Rev Samuel Pollard, comprising 12 diaries, 1885-1915, describing life and work in China; manuscript and typescript accounts and letters by Pollard and cuttings by Pollard and other authors, 1900s-1910s (some undated), describing missionary work and life and customs in China, including remote regions; eight photographs, undated, including local people, Pollard, and Pollard's grave.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English and Chinese (Hua Miao dialect)

System of arrangement:

Conditions governing access:

Unrestricted, but only to be viewed on microfiche.

Conditions governing reproduction:

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

Finding aids:

Unpublished handlist.

Archival Information

Archival history:

The papers were deposited with the Methodist Missionary Society and form part of the special series of biographical papers of individual missionaries.

Immediate source of acquisition:

Deposited on permanent loan with the records of the Methodist Missionary Society from 1978.

Allied Materials

Related material:

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of the Bible Christian Home and Foreign Missionary Society (Ref: MMS/BC) and its successor the United Methodist Missionary Society (Ref: MMS/UMMS). SOAS also holds papers used by R Elliott Kendall in his work on Samuel Pollard, comprising letters and papers of and relating to Pollard (Ref: MS 380690); papers of the Parsons family, missionaries who worked among the Miao tribe using the script devised by Pollard (Ref: MS 380686); research papers of Frederick Howard Taylor on the tribes of south-west China, including notes on the life of Samuel Pollard (Ref: CIM Box 11 File 124).

Publication note:

Description Notes

Archivist's note:
Compiled by Rachel Kemsley as part of the RSLP AIM25 project. Sources: Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed Gerald H Anderson (1998); British Library OPAC.

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:
Mar 2002