Eliza Jane Gillett Bridgman (1805–1871) was a pioneer educational

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

in China. She was born in

Derby, Connecticut Derby is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, approximately 8 miles west-northwest of New Haven. It is located in southwest Connecticut at the confluence of the Housatonic and Naugatuck Rivers. It borders the cities of Ansoni ...

, to Canfield and Hannah Gilett. Graduating at age sixteen, she became an assistant teacher at the boarding school from which she graduated. She continued her career in education and was appointed principal at another boarding school at age twenty-two.

Missionary career in China

Gillett followed her childhood desire to be a

and was appointed as one to China with the Protestant Episcopal Church on November 14, 1843. Although the mission board was reluctant to appoint unmarried women, she became one of three unmarried women to be appointed under the church's new China mission. In 1844, she sailed to China with Rev. William Jones Boone. After arriving in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

, Eliza soon met Dr. Rev. Elijah Coleman Bridgman. Bridgman believed that Eliza was his answer to his prayer for a wife; he proposed and the two were married on June 28, 1845, in Colonial Chapel. After marrying, she joined her husband and transferred her ministries to the

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

. Together, the Bridgmans began their missionary work in

Canton Canton may refer to: Administrative division terminology * Canton (administrative division), territorial/administrative division in some countries, notably Switzerland * Township (Canada), known as ''canton'' in Canadian French Arts and ent ...

. The couple adopted two small girls and moved to

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

, where Eliza began the first

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

girls' school there. In 1862 she was forced to take a furlough in the United States due to health concerns after her husband's death, during which she was run over by a sled. Bridgman returned to Peking in 1864, where she opened up Bridgman Girls' College after obtaining substantial land. The

Teng Shih K'ou Congregational Church Teng Shih K'ou Congregational Church ( zh, t=燈市口公理會教堂, w=Têng Shih K'ou Kung-li-hui Chiao-t'ang, p=Dēngshìkǒu Gōnglǐhuì Jiàotáng), often simply referred to as the Teng Shih K'ou Church (), was a Congregational church locat ...

was built in the same year, as part of the college. The academy later became the Women's College of Yenching University and is credited with educating a large number of female Chinese leaders. Eliza Jane Gillett Bridgman is buried in Shanghai next to her husband Elijah Bridgman.

Works

*Elijah Coleman Bridgman, ed. Eliza Jane Gillett Bridgman (1864)
''The Pioneer of American Missions in China: The Life and Labors of Elijah Coleman Bridgman''
*Eliza Jane Gillett (1853
''Daughters of China; or, Sketches of Domestic Life in the Celestial''
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bridgeman, Eliza Jane Gillett 1805 births 1871 deaths American Anglican missionaries People from Derby, Connecticut American expatriates in China American Congregationalist missionaries Anglican missionaries in China Congregationalist missionaries in China Female Christian missionaries Burials in Shanghai