Mary Geraldine Guinness (; 25 December 1862 – 6 June 1949), often known as Mrs. Howard Taylor, was a British Protestant

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

missionary to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, and author of many missionary biographies on the history of the China Inland Mission (CIM).

Life

She was born in 1865. She was the daughter of revivalist preachers and authors

Fanny Grattan Guinness Fanny Grattan Guinness born Fanny Emma Fitzgerald writing as Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness (1831 – 3 November 1898) was a British writer, evangelist and trainer of missionaries. Life Guinness was born in 1831 in London. She became an orphan after ...

and Henry Grattan Guinness. Her father was a friend of

James Hudson Taylor James Hudson Taylor (; 21 May 1832 – 3 June 1905) was a British Baptist Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM, now OMF International). Taylor spent 51 years in China. The society that he began was respons ...

, founder of the CIM. She became Taylor's daughter-in-law when she married his son, fellow CIM missionary Frederick Howard Taylor.

Single woman and missionary

In her youth, Taylor taught a Bible class for "factory-girls" in Bromley-by-Bow in the

East End of London The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

where they lived. She attended meetings at "Berger Hall" named after

William Thomas Berger William Thomas Berger (1815–1899) was a Christian starch manufacturer in London and owner of Samuel Berger & Co., a patent rice starch manufacturer, who became the first home (England) director of the China Inland Mission with James Hudson ...

. She left London for China as a second-class passenger on the P&O vessel ''Kaisar-i-Hind I''Shipping lists date the building of the second ''Kaisar-i-Hind'' after 1888 and upon the sinking of the first. in January, 1888, age 22. The Hundred missionaries had all sailed to China the previous year. Among the 25 passengers (16 men, 5 ladies ic aboard the steam ship with her were Miss Mary Reed (daughter of Mrs Henry Reed and sister of Mrs Harry Guinness), Mr and Mrs Hunt (travelling to

Hanchung Hanzhong (; abbreviation: Han) is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shaanxi province, China, bordering the provinces of Sichuan to the south and Gansu to the west. The founder of the Han dynasty, Liu Bang, was once enfeoffed as ...

) and the Pigott family of

The Sheo Yang Mission The Sheo Yang Mission (referred to as SYM in some accounts) was a Protestant Christian missionary society that was involved in sending workers to China during the late Qing dynasty. It was founded by the Pigott family in 1892The Encyclopaedia Sinica ...

(who were eventually killed during the

Boxer Rebellion The Boxer Rebellion, also known as the Boxer Uprising, the Boxer Insurrection, or the Yihetuan Movement, was an anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian uprising in China between 1899 and 1901, towards the end of the Qing dynasty, by ...

). As recorded in ''In the Far East'' (1889), the ''Kaisar-i-Hind'' took a route passing Gibraltar (10:30pm, 31 January 1888), calling at Naples and then passing the Straits of Messina, stopping for a day at

Aden Aden ( ar, عدن ' Yemeni: ) is a city, and since 2015, the temporary capital of Yemen, near the eastern approach to the Red Sea (the Gulf of Aden), some east of the strait Bab-el-Mandeb. Its population is approximately 800,000 people. ...

and then onward to Colombo,

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. At Colombo the missionary party boarded the P&O vessel ''S.S. Deccan'', bound for Shanghai. A stop in

Penang Penang ( ms, Pulau Pinang, is a Malaysian state located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia, by the Malacca Strait. It has two parts: Penang Island, where the capital city, George Town, is located, and Seberang Perai on the Malay ...

, Malaysia, allowed Geraldine a first contact with many Chinese who came on board. Then a stop at Singapore followed. Her first time on Chinese soil was later at a stop at Hong Kong where she was received by Dr and Mrs Chalmers of the London Missionary Society, who introduced them also to Mr and Mrs Bender of the Basel Mission. Shanghai was reached next. But Shanghai was not their final destination. Staying only long enough to exchange their European clothes for the national Chinese costume, the missionaries started on again, leaving this first station of the China Inland Mission behind them and travelling on the boat ''Fuh-ho'' ("Happy Harmony") in the substantially cheaper Chinese accommodations up the Yang-tsi River to Chinkiang. Lastly on to a barge some 6 hours to Yang-chau, finally arriving at Yang-chau on 23 March 1888. She wrote to her sister after a short time in China: After training in China, Geraldine was eventually stationed in

Honan Honan ( ga, Ó hEoghanáin), is an Irish surname, possibly originating in County Clare.http://www.county-clare-i.com/honan-surname.html Notable people Notable people with this surname include: * Bob Honan, Australian rugby player * Cathy Hona ...

Province.

Published works

* The Call of China's Great North West - Kansu and Beyond (1920)
''In the Far East''
(1889)
''The Story of the China Inland Mission''
(1893) *
One of China's Scholars
The Early Life and Conversion of Pastor Hsi'' (1900) *''Guinness of Honan'' (1930) *'' Borden of Yale '09'' (1913)
''Hudson Taylor In Early Years; The Growth of a Soul''
(1911)

(1918) *''Though War Should Rise'' (1914) *''Pearl's Secret''
''The Call of China's Great North-West or Kansu and Beyond''
(1923) *''With P’u and His Brigands'' (1922)

(1932) *''Faith's Venture'' (1932) *''Margaret King’s Vision'' (1934) *''The Triumph of

John and Betty Stam John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

'' (1935) *''By Faith: Henry W. Frost and the China Inland Mission'' (1938) *''Sirs, Be of Good Cheer'' (1941) *''A Story Without End'' *''Behind the Ranges: Fraser of Lisuland'' (1944)

References

Citations

Sources

* * * * * * * *

External links

''Hudson Taylor in Early Years-The Growth of a Soul'' - Volume 1 by Dr. and Mrs Howard Taylor

Missionary E-Texts Archive: Historical Writings by, about and for Missionaries

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20070926212919/http://www.genealogy.com/users/y/o/r/Brian-York-Burnsville/?Welcome=1091209026 Taylor family tree {{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Geraldine 1865 births 1949 deaths Christian writers 19th-century English historians English Protestant missionaries Protestant missionaries in China British expatriates in China

Geraldine Taylor Mary Geraldine Guinness (; 25 December 1862 – 6 June 1949), often known as Mrs. Howard Taylor, was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and author of many missionary biographies on the history of the China Inland Missio ...

Female Christian missionaries Clergy from Liverpool

Geraldine Geraldine may refer to: People * Geraldine (name), the feminine form of the first name Gerald, with list of people thus named. * The Geraldines, Irish dynasty descended from the Anglo-Norman Gerald FitzWalter de Windsor * Geraldine of Albania, th ...

British women historians 20th-century English historians