Haweis, Thomas (1734-1820)
Anglican co-founder of the London Missionary Society
Haweis was born in Redruth, Cornwall, England, served apprenticeship as a surgeon, and after an evangelical conversion, studied at Oxford and was ordained in 1757. From 1764 he was rector of Aldwincle, Northamptonshire, ministering there until his retirement to Bath in 1809. He combined regular, if controversial, Anglican churchmanship with service to Lady Huntingdon and her Connexion and with unusual openness to Dissenters. He campaigned for Protestant missions, popularizing Melville Horne‘s Letters. He himself planned several early missions. Dispatch of two of Lady Huntington’s preachers to Tahiti in 1791 was frustrated by their unrealistic demand for Anglican ordination; a mission to Bulama (now Guinea Bissao) in 1794 was also aborted. In 1795 Haweis, Daivd Bogue, and John Eyre were principal founders of the Missionary Society (later, the London Missionary Society), of which he remained a prominent director. He was responsible for choosing the Pacific as the first main field, securing assistance from Sir Joseph Banks, Captain Bligh, and other notables, and arguing consistently for a ship to give logistical support.
Andrew F. Walls, “Haweis, Thomas,” in Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, ed. Gerald H. Anderson (New York: Macmillan Reference USA, 1998), 284.
This article is reprinted from Biographical Dictionary of Christian Missions, Macmillan Reference USA, copyright © 1998 Gerald H. Anderson, by permission of Macmillan Reference USA, New York, NY. All rights reserved.
Bibliography
Digital Texts
_____. The Communicant’s Spiritual Companion; or, An Evangelical Preparation for the Lord’s Supper. London: n.p., 1818. Also published in Samuel Wright, A Treatise on That Being Born Again, Without Which No Man Can Be Saved. Whitehall; New York: William Barlas, 1802.
_____. Hints Respecting the Poor: Submitted to the Consideration of the Humane and Intelligent. London: C. Dilly, 1788.
_____. The Three Kings: Containing Incidents Singularly Amusing as well as Strikingly Providential in the Lives of Gustavus Vasa, King of Sweden, Charles II, King of England, Stanislaus II, King of Poland. London: T. Chapman, 1796.
_____. Evangelical Principles and Practice: Fourteen Sermons, Preached in the Parish-Church of St. Mary Magdalen in Oxford. Newburyport: Edmund M. Blunt, 1803.
Miller, Josiah. “Thomas Haweis, LL.B., M.D. (1734-1820).” In Singers and Songs of the church: Being Biographical Sketches of the Hymn-Writers in All the Principal Collections: With Notes on Their Psalms and Hymns. Second Edition. London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1869. Pp. 258-9.
Primary
Haweis, Thomas. Carmina Christo or, Hymns to the Saviour: Designed for the Use and Comfort of those who Worship the Lamb that was slain. Bath, England: S. Hazard, 1792.
_____. The Church of England Vindicated from Misrepresentation: Shewing her Genuine Doctrines as Contained in her Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies. With a Particular Reference to the Elements of Christian Theology, by the Bishop of Lincoln. London: J. Mawman, 1801.
_____. Essays on the Evidence, Characteristic Doctrines, and Influence of Christianity. Bath: printed and sold by S. Hazard; sold also by G. G. J. and J. Robinson, Dilly, Cadell, and Matthews, and Vernor; London: Mills, and Bulgin; Bristol; Woolmer, Exeter; Wilson and Spence, York; Prince, Oxford; Edows, Shrewsbury; Mosely, Gainsborough, 1791.
_____. The Evangelical Expositor: or, A Commentary on the Holy Bible. Wherein the Sacred Text of the Old and New Testament is Inserted at Large. 2 vols. London: Edward and Charles Dilly, 1765-66.
_____. A Familiar and Practical Improvement of the Church Catechism. London: Dilly, 1775.
_____. The Life of William Romaine, M.A. Late Rector of St. Ann’s, Blackfryars, and Lecturer of St. Dunstan’s in the West, Faithfully Detailed, by Thos. Haweis. London: T. Chapman, 1797.
_____. Missionary Instructions, Recommended to the Serious Attention of all who are Engaged in the Great and Important Work of Promoting the Gospel of Christ among the Heathen. London: T. Chapman, 1796.
_____. A Plea for Peace and Union among the Living Members of the Real Church of Christ: Addressed with True Respect and Fraternal Regard to the Missionary Society. London: T. Chapman, 1796.
_____. A Translation of the New Testament from the Orginal Greek: Humbly Attempted with a View to Assist the Unlearned with Clearer and More Explicit Views of the Mind of the Spirit in the Scriptures of Truth. London: T. Chapman, 1795.
_____. A View of the Present State of Evangelical Religion Throughout the World. London: J. Haddon 1801.
Secondary
Ellis, William. The History of the London Missionary Society. Compiled from Original Documents in the Possession of the Society. London: Snow, 1844.
Goodall, Norman. A History of the London Missionary Society, 1895-1945. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1954.
Hiney, Tom. On the Missionary Trail: A Journey Through Polynesia, Asia, and Africa with the London Missionary Society. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2000.
London Missionary Society. Fruits of Toil in the London Missionary Society. London: The Society, 1869.
Lovett, Richard. The History of the London Missionary Society, 1795-1895. London: Henry Frowde, 1899.
Wood, Arthur Skevington. “Haweis, Thomas.” In The Blackwell Dictionary of Evangelical Biography: 1730-1860, edited by Donald M. Lewis. Vol. I A-J. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1995. Pp. 536-537.
_____. Thomas Haweis, 1734-1820. London: Published for the Church Historical Society [by] S.P.C.K., 1957.
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