Newell, Samuel and Harriet

Collection — Box: Multi-collection Box 16

Identifier: RG-1119

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Photocopy of manuscript notes on Theology made by Samuel Newell, 1811-1812; photocopy of Memoir of Mrs, Harriet Newell; photocpy of Philomelia Thurston's Diary, 1817.

Dates

Creation: 1811-1817

Conditions Governing Access

Photocopy only: Original in Franklin Trask Library, Andover Newton Theological School.

The collection is open for research. Unpublished manuscripts are protected by copyright. Permission to publish, quote, or reproduce must be secured from the repository and copyright holder. Staff may refuse copying of fragile or at-risk materials.

Materials may be accessed by request at the American Baptist Historical Society. For more information on accessing collections or obtaining copies, visit http://abhsarchives.org.

Biographical / Historical

NEWELL, Samuel, 1785-1820; b. Mass.: graduated at Harvard college 1807. While engaged in the study of theology at Andover, he with five other students signed a paper addressed to the general association of Massachusetts (Congregational), expressing their desire to go as missionaries to the heathen and asking advice. It was this appeal that led to the formation of the American board. He married Harriet Atwood, and Feb. 19,1812, sailed for Calcutta. Arriving there they were forbidden by the East India company to remain within their jurisdiction, and sailed for the Isle of France. After being driven about for a month in the bay of Bengal, the ship put in at Coringa in distress. Again sailing, their little daughter died, and was buried in the ocean. Soon after their arrival Mrs. Newell also died and was buried on the island.

Mr. Newell went to Ceylon, and afterward to Bombay, where he died of cholera. He was greatly endeared to the friends of missions by his devotedness and peculiarly amiable character. He wrote with Mr. Hall while at Andover, The Conversion of the World, or Claims of Six Hundred Mu lions, a work of thrilling interest which had great effect in churches in awakening a missionary spirit.

The International Cyclopedia: A Compendium of Human Knowledge, Volume 10 By Richard Gleason Greene. New York:Dodd, Mead and Company (1890) P. 527 http://books.google.com/books?id=A3oWAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA527&lpg=PA527&dq=Newell,+Harriet, +1793-1812&source=bl&ots=xXpRl9jVLY&sig=A4jvakQquh84NVVoo70_cjQfSfk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SavWUrLrGomxsQSu7YCIAQ&%2C%20Harriet%2C%201793-1812&f=false

Harriet Newell was born Harriet Atwood at Haverhill, Massachusetts in Oct 1793. She was part of the first wave of Christian missionaries to go overseas from the United States. She died less than a year into her journey and became a hero and role model for Christians during the Nineteenth Century. Many children were named for her over the following decades.

She married in February 1812 to Rev. Samuel Newell. Along with Adoniram Judson and Ann Judson, they went off to preach in India and Burma. They were expelled by the East India Company and went on to Mauritius, where she died November 30, 1812. She had given birth to a child who died after five days.

Her memoirs were published posthumously, going into a number of editions.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Newell