William Carey was born on 17th August, 1761 in Paulerspury in England to Edmund Carey & Elizabeth. He was the eldest of five Children. His Parents were weavers and later Edmund took up a Job as a Parish clerk as the weaving trade was not successful.
Carey was a nature loving child and had ‘Dare to be different’ attitude. He used to climb the trees to peep in to the nests. He fell down and was hurt. But it didn’t stop him to repeat those. Poverty stuck the family and Carey had to take up a Job as a gardener boy at the age of 12.
Since he was allergic to the hot sun, he took up a Job as a Cobbler with Mr. Nicholas. An incident with counterfeit shilling brought him closer to God. He realized that attending Church was not enough and as Christians we need to do more. He got a copy of NT Commentary with a part of it on Greek. Carey took it and also borrowed a Greek Grammar book and started learning Greek.
The Great Change
In 1779 Carey’s Father died and post that he took up a Job in the Shoe Shop of his relative Mr.T.Old. On 10th June, 1781 William Carey married Mr.Old’s Sis in law, Ms. Dorothy. Carey worked hard, yet he didn’t find success with business. Illness stuck the family and he lost his daughter Anne. Later he had 3 sons Felix, William Jr & Peter.
Carey had this burning desire to explore new countries and nations and share the love of Christ. He put forward a proposal to the Baptist clergymen for building a missionary society. He gave a fiery speech and raised two challenges
a) Expect great things from God
b) Attempt great things from God
His fiery speech stirred many, leading to the formation of Baptist Missionary Soceity.
William Carey met Dr.John Thomas who was a missionary in Bengal and was interested to accompany him. The BMS agreed to send Carey as Dr.John Thomas’s companion. As East India Company didn’t give them permission, they secretly arranged to come, but the Ship didn’t take them as Captain feared East India Company.
Attempt Great things for God
On June 13th 1793 they started to India. Carey, his wife, a baby Boy Jabez and three of his elder Sons. It took 5 months and they reached India on 11th Nov, 1793. They had a rough journey.
Carey’s first attempt was to translate the NT in Bengali. He learned Bengali from Ram Ram Basu. He also took a Job with George Udney’s Indigo factory at Madnabutty. He started a free school for forty students there. He further went to learn Hindustani & Sanskrit.
Cruelty in the name of Caste
Peter, Carey’s third Son passed away to dysentery. No one was willing to make a coffin or a dig a grave with a fear of losing their caste. Finally four muslims agreed to prepare a coffin and four outcasts helped carry Peter’s body.
Their house in Madnabutty was on Tangen river edge and there were snakes & Tigers and the river had crocodiles. Carey’s wife was very worried and she was filled with fear and grief. She became mentally ill and was also confined to a locked room. She died on 8th Dec 1807.
These didn’t deter Carey. A young missionary, John Fountain was sent to help him. With the help of John and his Son Felix, the Bengali NT was ready for printing in 1797. Printing in England was expensive, Carey learned that a Printing press was auctioned in Calcutta. He bought it for 46 pounds.
Serampore Mission
After repeated requests from Carey, the Baptist Missionary Society sent a team of missionaries from England to India. Joshua Marshman & William Ward were among them. Since they didn’t have passports, they landed in Serampore under the Danish flag. After a lot a deliberations, Carey decided to move to Serampore, 10th Jan 1800. These 3 came to be known as Serampore Trio.
Carey’s Missions
Carey’s contribution to Agriculture & Horticulture, Forest Conservation, Printing & Translation were commendable.
Expect Great things from God
Fort William College was founded and William Carey was asked to teach Benagali. This gave acceptance in England and he translated lot of Indian books from Sanskrit to Bengali. He also published the New Testament in Bengali.
Schools for Boys and Girls. 1794, 1 School with Forty became 111 schools in 1818 with 10,000 students. By 1830, he started 33 schools for girls with 582 girls.
Serampore College – Mission college was setup in 1818 to prepare men for ministry. Royal Charter was given by Danish King. This enabled the college to confer degrees.
Mission press and Journalism – Entire Bible was printed in Bengali. Tragedy stuck again the Press was destroyed in fire. But Carey was determined to build the Press again. People raised funds, 150 Pounds from Fort William college. 1000 Pounds by friends, Soceity of England gave 10,000 Pounds. By 1832, complete Bible, NTs were printed in 44 languages. It became the Largest Press in India.
Social Reforms
Carey also fought against Infanticide. Bengal had a cruel practice of hanging sick babies in trees for 3 days. Also during Sagar mela, there was belief to throw Children at the meeting point of River Hoogly with the sea. Carey fought against these.
Carey voiced against Child Marriage. During his days there were 10,000 widows under the age of 4 and 50,000 widows between ages 5 and 9.
Carey also fought against Sati alongside of Raja Ram Mohan Roy. By their efforts the Anti Sati law was enacted on 4th Dec 1829.
Carey’s Last days
Carey died on 9th June 1834. He will be remembered as the Father of Modern Missions. As per her wishes his tomb stone read as
William Carey D. D.,
Born, 17 August, 1761
Died, 9 June, 1834
“A wretched, poor, and helpless worm, on thy kind arms I fall”
In 1993 Govt honored him by releasing a commemorative postage stamp.