Direct links
 
Home → Research Centres → Wvp → Papers of James Gunther

The papers of Reverend James Günther

Transcripts of Letters and Journals sent to the London Corresponding Committee of the Church Missionary Society, 1837-42
Transcribed from Australian Joint Copying Project microfilm
of the Church Missionary Society Papers held in Birmingham University Library

Preamble

The original manuscripts of the papers of Reverend James Günther are held with the Church Missionary Society papers in Birmingham University Library (Class Mark C.N./O 51). This edition has been prepared from microfilm copied under the Australian Joint Copying Project (AJCP) as part of its Miscellaneous series, M173-198 and 199-243. The Günther Papers appear in AJCP M224. Note that the microfilmed pages are in some places out of order, and there is some duplication. The editors have restored the correct order of pages for this edition, so that the transcript page numbers differ from that of the AJCP microfilm.

3.1 Reverend Günther's Letters contains seven items from the years 1837 to 1842. Five of these are letters from Günther, and one (Letter 5) is from his wife, Lydia, to Reverend Jowett in January 1839. The final item (Letter 7) is from Broughton to Günther, dated 25 June 1842, on the dire subject of the mission's `agriculturalist', William Porter.

3.2 Reverend Günther's Journals comprises 8 installments of a journal kept continuously from August 1837 until the end of 1840. There are some breaks, as in Journal 5, where a 4 page outline of proceedings replaces the normal quarterly journal, a "deficiency" owed to Günther's being required in Sydney for Supreme Court proceedings. This was also the case for the month of February 1839 in Journal 6. The last installment, Journal 8, covers the entire year of 1840 in 48 pages.

Reverend James Günther born at Nagold, Würtemburg, 12 May 1806. Like Handt, he was a graduate of the Basle Mission Institute, trained by Reverend Theopilus Blumhardt. He also studied Ecclesiastical History at the University of Basle. From October 1832 he attended the CMS Institution at Islington and was ordained deacon later that year. He was ordained priest in 1836. Günther was appointed to the New Holland Mission in July 1836. Shortly after, he married Lydia Paris of Wilmington, Kent, and together they sailed to New South Wales on the emigrant ship, Brothers, arriving in Sydney on 8 April 1837. While in Sydney, he met and befriended Reverend Handt, who had recently abandoned the Wellington Valley mission after a protracted and venomous dispute with the Watsons. Handt found him "an agreeable and harmless" character and, as Lydia Günther noted in her letter to Reverend William Jowett (Letter 5), warned him of what to expect from the Watsons at Wellington. The Günthers did not depart for Wellington until July, and did not arrive till August.

Volume 3: The Papers of James Günther 1837 - 42