George Bennet (missionary)

George Bennet (born April 16, 1774) was a missionary originally from Sheffield, Yorkshire. In 1821 George Bennett set out on his travels with Rev Daniel Tyerman. The population of the world at this time was roughly 740 million, and of that only 174 million were Christians. George Bennett and Rev Daniel Tyerman with the financial backing of the London Missionary Society set out to try and spread the word of Christianity to the outskirts of the known world. He traveled to China, Southeast Asia, and India for the London Missionary Society, along with Reverend Daniel Tyerman.[1][2]

Bennet stopped in Macau during his Pacific voyage and was so impressed by the garden and aviary of opium trader Thomas Beale that he devoted forty-five pages of his travelogue to describing their contents.[3]

George Bennett was the only one of the two to arrive home after the remarkable journey; Daniel Tyerman lost his life in South Africa. After his voyage Bennett gave certain historical artifacts that he had collected to the Natural History Museum.

References

  1. ^ Montgomery, James; Daniel Tyerman, George Bennet (1832). Journal of voyages and travels by the Rev. Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet, esq: deputed from the London missionary society, to visit their various stations in the South Sea Islands, China, India, etc. between the years 1821 and 1829, Volume 3. London Missionary Society. http://books.google.com/books?id=KrIPAAAAIAAJ&dq=%22George+Bennett%22+mission&client=firefox-a&source=gbs_navlinks_s. 
  2. ^ Porter, Andrew N. (2004). Religion versus empire?: British Protestant missionaries and overseas expansion, 1700-1914. Manchester University Press. p. 165. ISBN 9780719028236. 
  3. ^ Fan, Fa-ti (2004). British Naturalists in Qing China: Science, Empire, and Cultural Encounter. Cambridge, MA and London: Harvard University Press.  pp. 44-45