William Carey

In 1781, Carey got married to his boss Thomas Old’s sister-in-law, Dorothy Plackett, in Piddington. They together had seven children, five sons and two daughters. Three of his children died during their childhood.

From the time when Carey and his family settled in India, Dorothy started having troubles with adjusting emotionally and mentally and subsequently lost her mental balance and became psychologically affected. She died in 1807.

In 1808 Carey got married to Charlotte Rhumohr, a Danish member of his church who was not illiterate like Dorothy and was quite involved in her husband’s work. They were married for 13 years until her death.

William Carey was born on August 17, 1761 in the village of Paulerspury in Northamptonshire, England to Edmund and Elizabeth Carey. His father was a parish clerk and a village schoolmaster as well.

Carey was an inquisitive child and was interested in the natural sciences, especially botany. He was also proficient in many languages and learnt Latin on his own.

His health did not allow him to purse agriculture, which is why at the age of sixteen he became an apprentice to a shoemaker in Hackleton. Later, he became a shoemaker himself.

At his apprenticeship, Carey met a Dissenter, John Warr, and in due course of time, he left the Church of England and joined other Dissenters to form a small Congregational Church near Hackletown.

After Carey’s mentor, Clarke Nichols, died in 1779, he worked under Thomas Old and soon after his death, he took over his business. By this time, he had taught himself to read Hebrew, Italian, Dutch and French.

He was by now invited to preach in the church near village of Earls Barton on Sundays and soon he was baptized by John Ryland and committed himself to the Baptist denomination.

In 1785, he became the schoolmaster for the Moulton village and was asked to serve as the pastor to the local Baptist church. He was now inspired to proliferate the Christian Gospel, after reading David Brainerd, James Cook, etc.

Carey became the full-time pastor of Harvey Lane Baptist Church, Leicester, in 1789 and a few years later, he wrote his missionary manifesto, ‘An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen’.

The short book contained the theological justification for missionary activities, history of missionary activities, religion statistics of every country in the world, possible objections of sending missionaries and their solution, plan for the formation of a missionary society, etc.

The major work of Carey’s life is considered to be his devotion to modern Christian missionary movement and his time devoted in converting Hindus into Christianity, translating Bible in 44 Indian languages and dialects and teaching at Serampore College.