The Moule Manuscripts

This collection comprises the personal papers of members of the Moule family as CMS missionaries in China and Japan. It includes a substantial amount of detailed correspondence of different generations about family life and life as a missionary. This correspondence includes letters of Mrs Adelaide Moule, written to her mother-in-law, Mrs Henry Moule, from Ningpo and Hangchow, 1858-1875; and the journals, circular and other letters of George Herbert Moule and his wife Edith written from the Central Theological College, Tokyo in Japan, 1922-1936. The collection also includes photograph albums, including a presentation album to Archdeacon Walter Stephen Moule and his wife, Agnes on their leaving China in 1925. Other papers include the writings of some of the Moule family including books in Chinese by Arthur Evans Moule.

Two sons of Reverend Henry Moule of Fordingbridge were Church Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries in the Mid-China Chekiang mission: George Evans Moule and Arthur Evans Moule. Six of their children followed them to work in Chekiang and one worked in Japan. George Evans Moule worked in the Chekiang mission from 1858, being consecrated first Bishop of Mid-China 1880. He left China finally in 1911 and died 1912. He married Adelaide Sarah Griffiths in 1858. She died in 1909. George Evans had three children: Adelaide Mary (in Hangchow 1894-1901: died at Hangchow 1901); Frances (in Hangchow 1894-1932: died at Shanghai 1943); Henry William (in Hangchow 1896-1922: died 1953). Arthur Evans Moule served in Mid-China 1861-1894 and 1902-1910. He died 1918. His wife Agnes Bernau (daughter of CMS missionary John Henry Bernau, British Guiana) died 1925. Arthur Evans had four children: Walter Stephen (in Ningpo 1888-1925: died 1949) who married Agnes Lucy Wright; Arthur John Henry (in Chekiang 1889-1924: died 1930); William Augustus Handley (in Chekiang 1890-1924: died 1946); George Herbert (in Japan 1903-1911, 1922-1936: died 1949), who married Edith Mary Bernau.

Reference: Finding aid to the Moule Manuscripts

Arranged into three series: Correspondence, Family Papers and Miscellaneous Papers

Open. Access to all registered researchers.

Deposited with the CMS November 1972; transferred on permanent loan to the Special Collections Department by the CMS in the 1980s.

Please see full catalogue for further details.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the University Archivist, Special Collections. Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material.

The Special Collections Department holds the Church Missionary Society Archive, the official archive of the society (GB 150 CMS), which includes papers relating to the service of the Moule family members as a CMS missionaries

The University of Birmingham, Special Collections Department and the Orchard Learning Resources Centre hold a rich collection of archives relating to missions, charities and other religious and ecclesiastical organisations and individuals.