ABSTRACT
Nineteenth century missionaries in some places were effectively settlers, returning to Britain or Ireland rarely if at all. Some spent their entire ministry abroad, some eventually returned to serve in home circuits, some went overseas after itinerating for a time in Britain or Ireland. Cultural attitudes and opinions inevitably seasoned the missionary addresses they gave when they came home on furlough. The hopes and fears with which early missionaries set out and the prayers of those who watched them depart were versified in a hymn written by the Irish evangelical Thomas Kelly around the time when the Wesleyan Methodist Missionary Society (WMMS) was begun. It was not until 1864 that the WMMS began sending laymen as missionaries. Some of the women were engaged in evangelistic work, as for a short while were the Joyful News lay missionaries, but for a hundred years the great majority were in either education or medical work.
