Maria Tarn
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Maria Tarn (ca. 1808 – October 21, 1846), Christian missionary to China in the Congregationalist tradition, was with her husband, Samuel Dyer, a pioneer missionary to the Chinese in Malaysia. She was the eldest daughter of Joseph Tarn, Director of London Missionary Society. They arrived in Penang in 1827. The Dyers lived in Malacca and then finally in Singapore. Maria was known for founding a girl's school in Singapore that still exists called Saint Margaret's Girls School. Her husband died in Macao in 1843 before being able to bring his family to live in China itself at Fuzhou. He was buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau) next to the graves of Robert Morrison and his wife. Dyer's orphaned daughter, Maria Jane Dyer married James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission. Maria Tarn later remarried, to Johann Georg Bausum in 1845, but she died the following year at Penang.
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[edit] Family and Early Work
Maria Tarn and Samuel Dyer were married in 1827 and shortly afterward the newlywed couple set sail for what was then called India, but today is known as Malaysia, where the only way to live in the vicinity of native Chinese could be obtained.
Samuel and Maria had five children: Maria Dyer (1829-1831), Samuel Dyer, Jr. (1833-1898), Burella Hunter Dyer (1835-1858), Maria Jane Dyer (1837-1870), and Ebenezer Dyer (1842-aft. Oct. 1843).
[edit] Chronology
- 1827 Marries Samuel Dyer.
- Dyers sail for Straits Settlements (Malaysia) (Register of LMS Missionaries p 29) & arrive in Penang; were to have gone on to Anglo Chinese College in Malacca; lack of workers leads them to stay in Penang & settle in Chinese sector of town
- Dyers study Minnan Dialect (Hokkien)
- Maria opens school for girls with 23 students – but it closes later in the year
- 1829 Birth of daughter, Maria (SOAS document)
- 1831 Maria, daughter, dies
- Visits Malacca, HQ of London Missionary Society – Chinese Ministries
- 1833 Samuel, son, born
- Chinese community request school
- [[Robert Morrison] dies.
- 1835 Burella Hunter, daughter, born
- Move to Malacca - London Missionary Society China Mission headquarters
- Establish 2 schools; curriculum includes: reading, writing, sewing and embroidery (Memoir p 119)
- 1837 Maria Jane, daughter, born
Furlough in England & Return to Asia
- 1839 Arrives in England; Maria ill with serious attack on liver
- 1841 Leave England for Singapore with 3 children and Ms Buckland
- 1842 Arrive in Singapore, rent mission-house of American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (Memoir p 240)
- Maria establishes Chinese Girls’ Boarding School with 20 students in their home (site of Raffles Hotel, later Saint Margaret’s Girls School)
- Samuel moves London Missionary Society press from Malacca to Singapore on J Legge’s suggestion
- Ebenezer, son, born (Memoir p 232, 235)
- Treaty of Nanking is signed
- 1843 Samuel Leaves with John Stronach for London Missionary Society Conference in Hong Kong
- Dyers are appointed to Fuzhou
- Samuel Dyer Dies in Macau; is buried next to the grave of Robert Morrison
Maria's tombstone reads: She devoted her life to the extension of Christ’s Kingdom among the Chinese females in the Straits
[edit] See also
- 19th Century Protestant Missions in China
- Christianity in China
- List of Protestant missionaries in China
[edit] References
- The Memoir of Samuel Dyer: Sixteen Years Missionary to the Chinese by Evan Davies, John Snow, London, 1846
- http://www.genealogy.com/users/y/o/r/Brian-York-Burnsville/?Welcome=1091209026
- The Story of the China Inland Mission Volume I; Mary Geraldine Guinness, Morgan & Scott, 1894
- Hudson Taylor & The China Inland Mission Volume One: In Early Years; The Growth of a Soul; Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor, China Inland Mission, London, 1911
- The Jubilee Story of the China Inland Mission; Marshall Broomhall, Morgan & Scott, 1915
- Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret; Dr. & Mrs. Howard Taylor, China Inland Mission, London, 1932
- Hudson & Maria; Pioneers In China; John Pollock, 1964
- Hudson Taylor & China’s Open Century Volume One: Barbarians at the Gates; Alfred James Broomhall; Hodder and Stoughton and Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1982
- From Jerusalem to Iriyan Jaya; Dr. Ruth Tucker, Zondervan
- Hudson Taylor: A Man In Christ; Roger Steer, Paternoster, 1990
- It Is Not Death to Die; Jim Cromarty, Christian Focus, 2001
- Christ Alone - A Pictorial Presentation of Hudson Taylor's Life and Legacy; OMF International, 2005
- Griffiths, Valerie, Not Less Than Everything, Monarch Books & OMF International, Oxford, 2004
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Tarn, Maria |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Dyer, Maria ; Dyer, Maria Tarn |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Missionary in Malaysia and Singapore |
| DATE OF BIRTH | ca. 1808 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | London, England |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 21, 1846 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Penang, Malaysia |
