Scott Family Papers

Papers, 1893-1940, of the Rev Charles Perry Scott and the Rev Percy Melville Scott, together with those of fellow missionaries of the North China and Shantung Mission. Also included is a continuous series of the North China and Shantung Mission Quarterly Papers (January 1893-October 1936), and the correspondence and diaries of Maurice Woodforde Scott dating from his time in China with Butterfield & Swire (1934-1937).

The North China and Shantung Mission, originally the Church of England North China Mission, was established by anonymous donation in 1872. Several generations of Scott family members served with the Mission, including the Rev. C.P. Scott (1872-1927) and the Rev. P. M. Scott (1909-1931).

The first two missionaries to be sent to the Church of England North China Mission were Rev. Charles Perry Scott and Rev. M. Greenwood. C. P. Scott , born in 1847 and ordained in 1871, had previously served as curate of St. Peter's, Eaton Square. This was the beginning of a long association between the Mission and that parish. The help given to the Chinese during the severe famine of 1878-1879 placed the Mission on a secure footing, and C. P. Scott was made Bishop of North China, a new diocese, in 1880. The Mission, covering parts of Shansi and the Mongolian border, continued under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and was manned by a few European missionaries and a number of Chinese converts. Three missionaries were killed during the Boxer uprising of 1900. The Diocese was divided again in 1903, with North China acquiring the province of Sheng-king and the new diocese of Shantung being created. Around the same time the Mission's name was changed from the North China Mission to the North China and Shantung Mission. C. P. Scott died shortly after his retirement in 1927.

Rev. Francis John Griffith was born around 1870. He and his wife arrived in China in 1894, where he was ordained in 1896. They worked in Tai-an-fu, the oldest station in the mission, under Bishop Geoffrey D. Iliff of Shantung and later under the same bishop at Yenchowfu. He served as chaplain to the British troops in North China in 1900 and carried out further war work during the Great War, arranging the movement of Chinese auxiliary forces to France. He retired in 1934 but died shortly afterwards on 5 May 1934.

Rev. Percy Melville Scott, the son of Canon S. G. Scott, was born around 1877, and educated at Magdalen College, Oxford. After his ordination in 1903, he worked in Southampton and Leeds, before leaving for China. He and his wife Winifred arrived in China in 1909, accompanied by his cousin Charles Wilfred Scott and his wife May. They were stationed in Peking under C. P. Scott's successor, Bishop F. L. Norris. P. M. Scott's longest posting in China was in Tatung Fu (1923-1931). He was involved in the siege of Tatung Fu by the Kuominchun forces in 1926, and went at the request of the city elders on a peace mission to the Kuominchun, which ultimately proved unsuccessful. The Mosse Memorial Hospital, linked with the Mission, was severely damaged in the conflict. P. M. Scott returned to England in 1931, serving as vicar of several parishes before his death around 1950.

Maurice Woodforde Scott, the son of P. M. Scott, was born in Peking in 1912. After returning to England for his education at Marlborough and at St. Edmund's College, Oxford, he joined the firm of Butterfield & Swire and was posted to Shanghai and Hong Kong (1934-1937). Whilst there, he was involved in the Scouting movement. After the war he enrolled in Wells Theological College and was ordained in 1949. His ecclesiastical career was based entirely in England, and he was made Honorary Canon of Winchester Cathedral in 1975 until his partial retirement in 1980. He died in 1983.

Further reading: D MacGillivray, A Century of Protestant Missions in China 1807-1907 (Shanghai, 1907).

The papers have been arranged into five sections: letters; notebooks and diaries; miscellaneous; cuttings and articles; quarterly papers. Within each section, the papers are in chronological order.

Open

Deposited at SOAS Library in 1993.

Unpublished handlist.

For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance

The School of Oriental and African Studies holds the records of John Swire's firm (John Swire & Sons) (Ref: JS&S) whose concerns included trade in China.