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UNITED SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE GOSPEL ARCHIVES C/CAN/NFL: DATE NOV 13, 1793 PRESENTED BEFORE THE COMMITTEE FEBRUARY 1794 Bonavista 13 Nov 1793. Reverend Sir. It is with much satisfaction that I enclose to you a petition from the principal inhabitants of this place praying for a missionary to reside among them. [NOTE- I cannot decipher the balance of this letter by John Bland- (what a terrible writer) T. Cole].
Petition Nov 5, 1793: To His Grace the most Reverend John Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and the --- of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts. The humble petition of the principal inhabitants of Bonavista. Sheweth: That upwards of forty years have elapsed since a minister of the gospel resided among them and during that period the Inhabitants have unhappily been deprived, not only of the blessing of a public administration of the rites of the Christian religion, but of spiritual assistance in that awful moment when worldly consideration are no longer of a vail. The increase of population within the aforesaid period is a circumstance -- under the absence of an --- missionary subject of particular regret. It has been recently as certained that no? less than five hundred children underage? are numbered in Bonavista to say nothing of its dependencies. The native inhabitants, as of necessity they must be, are too generally to be reckoned among the worst order of society; and as they have not the same advantages of moral instructions as that class in the mother country, their offspring are bred in a more lamentable ignorance of the great concerns of religion. Your petitioners are deeply impressed with a just sense of their own situation- of what they owe to God, to themsekves and their children, and they believe that it is the pure practice of religion alone that can insure to them the best enjoyment of the bless ings allotted to mortality. But while they solicit for themselves the benevolence of your charitable institution, they are not unmindful of an obligation incumbent upon them. They are sensible that a missionary who devotes his time solely to the laborious duties of his office, can have nothing to spare from the customary bounty of your society, and they have not been wanting in the estimation of their own means to continue to his support so as to place him above resorting to employment which they conceive ought not to be blended with his sacred function. Your petitioners are sensible to the intention of your society in sending ministers into remote parts, is to, promote the saving knowledge of the Gospel and consequently render mankind happy: but they cannot help observing that precept must fail where example is wanting. Rather would they have to remain bereft? of the blessing they solicit- rather would they see the dark cloud of ignorance continue to hover over them, than the pious intention of your society defeated in their regard. Your petitioners are desirous to have established among them a truly christian minister- one whose life would be an example of the doctrine he taught: and on their part they promise to adopt such additional means for his support as may reasonably relieve his mind from the common solicitude of this life and -- him to attend only to the concern of a better --. And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray. 1793 Petitioners in Bonavista to USPG Nov 5, 1793: Bland J. JP Ford G. JP Hosier Giles Mifflen Solomon Pudner Edward Mayne John Rolles John Stephens? Thomas Phillips Timothy Lovey J ames Pearce Andrew Abbott Stephen Pladwell William Skeffington James Lander John Reader Richard Hicks Thomas Bass Thomas Brown William Bemister George Hooper Stephen Brown Mary Dugdale Robert Cole William Baker William Stephens? Thomas
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