Mary Briscoe Baldwin

Mary Briscoe Baldwin

• Virtual Belle Grove, Mary Briscoe Baldwin
• Find A Grave Memorial ID # 53478196
• Mary Briscoe Baldwin's Wikipedia Page
• The Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, The Episcopal Church
• Mission life in Greece and Palestine: memorials of Mary Briscoe Baldwin, missionary to Athens and Joppa

Mary Baldwin was a 19th-century American missionary educator to Greece and Joppa (now Tel Aviv, Israel). She was the "first unmarried woman sent out by the Foreign Committee of the Protestant Episcopal Church's Mission Board." During the Crimean War, Baldwin assisted Florence Nightingale in hospitals, and they became friends.

Early Life and Education

Mary Briscoe Baldwin was born at Belle Grove Plantation in Frederick County, Virginia on May 20, 181. It was the home of her grandfather. Her paternal father was Dr. Cornelius Baldwin of Winchester, Virginia. Her mother was Nelly Conway Hite (d. 1830), (was the daughter of Major Isaac Hite of Belle Grove). Nelly was a niece of James Madison, the fourth President of the United States. Mary was the second daughter in a family of twelve — including Eleanor Conway Baldwin, Dr. Isaac Hite Baldwin, Ann Maury Baldwin, James Madison Baldwin, and Robert Stuart Baldwin. The family home was at Cedar Grove, which was near Belle Grove.

All the children in the family received their education from private tutors. On almost every subject which she studied; she formed her own opinions.

Bishop William Meade, of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was a relative who greatly influenced and helped her in her religious life. Her Christian character was put to a great test by the death of her parents, the breaking up of the family home, and the separation of the children.

Career

When about twenty years of age, Mary and her sister Eleanor went to visit relatives in Staunton, Virginia. Spending about a year there, she said: —"I grew weary of fashionable life. For some years, I had felt a great desire to be directly engaged in some Christian work, especially in extending the knowledge of the Gospel among my fellow-creatures, such as is the privilege of clergymen to do, but, being a woman, I could not possibly enter the ministry. Next to this, my thoughts turned to the life of a missionary, and this seemed a position far too high and heavenly for me to attain and enjoy." Recognizing that her education was incomplete, she enrolled in Miss Sheffy's boarding school at Staunton. After two terms, she was offered the position of assistant teacher at the institution, which she accepted, but also continued her regular studies at the school.

While there, she inquired if there were an opportunity for a single woman to do foreign missionary work. The Protestant Episcopal Society received a letter from Mrs. Hill, of Athens, Greece, stating her pressing need of assistance, and urgently requesting that someone be sent to aid her in the schools she had established. As Baldwin had some acquaintance with Mrs. Hill, she was interested especially in that work, and after a long consideration of the matter she wrote,—"I rose up with a firm and steady purpose of heart and said, 'I will go.'" Baldwin was one of the first unmarried missionaries to go out from America. Her decision was a surprise to her friends, some of whom said she was "going on a wild-goose chase;" or, the old story, that she was "throwing herself away;" or, for her it was "a descent in the social scale." But none of these things moved her. After her decision was made, she at once commenced her preparations — visited her old home and traveled over the country visiting many points of interest. She entered the service not for worldly gain; her salary was only US$250, but she was willing to supplement the deficiency by drawing upon her own financial resources.

Arriving in Greece, in mid-summer 1835, she realized with great delight that her life was to be passed in a land full of stirring memories. The worship of the poorer and unlearned classes consisted mostly in the adoration of pictures, images, and sacred symbols, or in chanting prayers in the olden tongue. Many years of cruel oppression and taxation had impoverished them, so that the missionary had to minister to their bodily wants as well as to their soul needs, and Miss Baldwin, comprehending the situation, fulfilled her highest conception of duty in ministering to their every need.

Dr. and Mrs. Hill, American missionaries who had established a school and found the project developing on their hands, sought the assistance of Baldwin, who took charge of the sewing department. She soon was appreciated by the girls and the esteem of the parents, who valued the art which enabled their girls to maintain themselves.

Death and Legacy

She died June 21, 1877, after 42 years of service. She was buried in the English cemetery in Jaffa, and friends placed over her a tombstone of Greek marble with the inscription:—"There is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him." After Baldwin's death, the Joppa Mission School was renamed. Mary Baldwin Memorial School.