Notes on the history of the 'Bombay Guardian' newspaper

Manuscript notebook recounting the history of the newspaper, 1851-1923, compiled by C. W. Pumphrey of Charlbury, Oxfordshire in c 1908-1923
The first 83 pages, taking the history up to 1903, were abridged from the 'History of the Bombay Guardian' in the manuscript 'Bombay Guardian Mission Press' by H. S. Newman, thereafter the notes are the original compilation of the author. They mainly consist of extracts from the minutes of the trustees of the 'Bombay Guardian'. The changing fortunes of the publication are described, its sequence of editors and the avoidance of its discontinuation through the support and energies of members of the Society of Friends.
A number of relating letters and circulars are attached.

In addition, there are loose notes, also on the history of the periodical, compiled apparently by a member of the Quaker family of Maynard, of Selly Oak, in c 1949.

The notes and extracts from the trustees' minutes reflect the difficulties of operating the newspaper, its funding, circulation and editorship. There is less comment reflecting the newspaper's purposes, which were to spread the knowledge of the Gospel, to oppose and extinguish the traffic in vice and in opium, and to promote total abstinence from intoxicating liquors.

The 'Bombay Guardian' was first published on 7 March 1851 by a committee of missionaries, following a resolution of the Bombay Missionary Conference. Information from the Friends House Library, Euston, identifies it as a weekly publication for the Indian branch of the Society for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice. George Bowen (1816-1888), member of the American Methodist Episcopal Church in Bombay and one of the original editiorial committee of five, became its sole editor in 1854. After his death the publication was taken on by the Society of Friends and Alfred Dyer became its editor. That role subsequently passed to Henry Stanley Newman, who was brother-in-law of Caroline Westcombe Pumphrey. By 1915 the newspaper's strapline was 'The Christian weekly newspaper circulating throughout India and the East'. By 1923 the name had changed to 'The Guardian' and its printing had moved to Calcutta; in 1932 its printing was undertaken in Madras under the strapline 'A Christian weekly journal of public affairs'. It continued as 'The Guardian' until at least the late 1950s; but then its publishers, the Mission Press and Guardian Mission Trust, were wound up in c 2010.

The author of the notebook, as recorded on the title page, was C.W. Pumphrey of Charlbury, Oxfordshire. This is apparently Caroline Westcombe Pumphrey, born in 1845 to Stanley Pumphrey, a Worcester tallow chandler, and his wife Mary. As a child Caroline spent time with her maternal aunt, and uncle, a Charlbury grocer and draper. Later Caroline Westcombe Pumphrey, a Quaker, authored several works including 'Samuel Baker of Hoshangabad: a sketch of Friends' missions in India' (1900, published under the name of C.W. Pumphrey). This was the only C.W. Pumphrey resident in Charlbury at the time of the 1911 census, when Caroline Westcombe Pumphrey was then aged 65, single, and described as of 'private means'.
The annual report of the Missionary Helpers Union of the Friends Foreign Mission for 1893 (at Yale University Library) includes the name of C.W. Pumphrey in the list of MHU committee members. (Other females in the report are referred to by their title and Christian name, which would initially indicate that C.W. Pumphrey was not in fact a woman, but as a published author who used only her initials she may have been an exception to the rule.) The MHU was established in 1882; members paid subscriptions to the Friends Foreign Mission Association and its aim was to encourage people to support missions by prayer, promotion of their work and by raising funds to further the cause.

Of other persons mentioned in the notebook, George Bowen was an American missionary, newspaper man, linguist and translator; he went to India in 1848 under the auspices of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. He wrote 'Daily Meditations'; 'Love Revealed'; and 'The Amens of Christ' and had the oversight of native workers in connection with the Methodist Chapel near his home.
Samuel F. Hurnard (born 1871) was a trustee of the 'Bombay Guardian' Mission Press based in England and acted as its honorary treasurer. He was author Christian writings including works in a series of aids to prophetic study on Revelation (published in 1930) and Isaiah (published in 1943).
Henry Stanley Newman (1837-1912) was editor of the Quaker weekly paper 'The Friend' between 1892 and 1912, and was honorary secretary of the Friends Foreign Mission Association [FFMA]. In 1873 he had established the Orphans Printing Press in Leominster. He brought the 'Bombay Guardian' through crisis in 1899, bought the press and secured it on a more secure business footing. In 1863 he had married Mary Ann Pumphrey, sister of Caroline Westcombe Pumphrey. The Newmans lived in Leominster, H.S. Newman working as a wholesale and retail grocer and minister of the Society of Friends. At the time of the 1881 census H.S. Newman was away from home but Caroline Westcombe Pumphrey (then described as 'editor' was then residing with his wife, her sister, in Leominster. When she died in 1925, C.W. Pumphrey appointed as her executors two of the Newmans' children, her nephew and niece: Sir George Newman, the eminent public health physician and Quaker, and Harriet Mary Newman.

Sources: the notebook
Introduction to records of the 'Bombay Guardian' Mission Pres and Guardian Mission Trust (ref: EMP MSS 941) at Friends House Library, Euston
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Bowen_(missionary) (accesssed July 2015)
http://images.library.yale.edu/divinitycontent/dayrep/Friends%20Foreign%20Mission%20Association.%20Missionary%20Helpers%20Union%20%201893%20v10.pdf (accessed July 2015)
http://stumblingstepping.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/quaker-alphabet-blog-week-27-n-for.html (accessed July 2015)
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/INDIA/2001-06/0991936456 (accessed July 2015)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Newmand_(doctor) (accessed July 2015)
Census returns accessed via Ancestry.co.uk, July 2015

Open, access to all registered researchers.

Transferred from OLRC [Orchard Learning Resource Centre], June 2015

Please see full catalogue for more information.

A brown paper jacket was stuck to the back and spine of the volume at some point in the past.

Catalogued by A. George, in accordance with guidelines provided by ICA General International Standard Archival Description (ISAD(G)), second edition,Ottawa; and in-house cataloguing guidelines, July 2015

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of 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 full provenance of this volume prior to its being held in the University of Birmingham Orchard Learning Resource Centre, Selly Oak, is not known. The front flyleaf is inscribed in ink 'C. W. Pumphrey , Charlbury, Oxon' and one of the leaves of manuscript notes written in c 1949 is a re-used letter to J. D. Maynard of Selly Oak; another leaf is a re-used note to Douglas Maynard [of the Selly Oak Quaker family]: it is possible that the volume passed to the Woodbrooke Quaker College in Selly Oak prior to tranfer to OLRC.

Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections also holds a scrapbook relating to the 'Bombay Guardian', reference MS882
'Bombay Guardian' 1903-1916, 1930-1942, 1953-1957 at OLRC, University of Birmimgham (plus some isues 1889, 1891-1893, 1895-1900 in very poor condition)

Associated Materials
'Bombay Guardian' 1851-1891 (microfilm) at British Library
Friends House Library (http://www.quaker.org.uk/library ): records relating to the 'Bombay Guardian' including H.S. Newman's History, 1851-1899; trustees' minutes (refs: TEMP MSS 941; MSS ACC 10595; TEMP MSS 20); incomplete set of the periodical (ref: in Periodicals Collection)