Maria Jane Taylor - Return To China

Return To China

On May 26, 1866, after over five years of working in England, Maria & Hudson Taylor and their four children set sail for China with their new team of missionaries, the Lammermuir Party, aboard the Lammermuir (clipper). A four-month voyage was considered speedy at the time. While in the South China Sea and also the Pacific Ocean the ship was nearly sunk but survived 2 typhoons. They arrived safely in Shanghai on September 30, 1866.

The arrival of the largest party of missionaries ever sent to China - as well as their intent to be dressed in native clothing - gave the foreign settlement in Shanghai much to talk about and some criticism began for the young China Inland Mission. The party donned Chinese clothing, notwithstanding - even the women missionaries (Maria for the first time) - which was deemed semi-scandalous by some Europeans. They traveled down the Grand Canal to make the first settlement in the war-torn city of Hangzhou. Another daughter was born to them in China (Maria Hudson Taylor).

Their eldest daughter, Grace, died during their first year in China. Maria felt the loss deeply, and poured out her emotions in poetry, as she had done earlier in life after the death of her parents.

Amid the struggle of the first year back in China, she wrote:

“As to the harsh judgings of the world, or the more painful misunderstandings of Christian brethren, I generally feel that the best plan is to go on with our work and leave God to vindicate our cause.”

When young women CIM missionary recruits arrived to join the work in China, Maria was able to train them in understanding Chinese, adaptation to Chinese culture, and missionary work.

1868 brought another child (Charles Edward Taylor) into the Taylor family, and in 1870, Hudson and Maria made the difficult decision to send their older three surviving children (Bertie, Freddie, and Maria - Samuel died earlier that year) home to England. That same year, Noel was born, though he died of malnutrition and deprivation two weeks later due to Maria's inability to nurse him. Maria died several days later at their home in Zhenjiang, with the official cause of death being cholera. The small Protestant cemetery where she was buried in Zhenjiang was where Hudson wanted to be laid to rest as well. He followed her there in 1905. The cemetery itself was destroyed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution by Red Guards in China as part of the Destruction of the Four Olds campaign. Today there are industrial buildings over the site.

Maria's death shook Hudson Taylor deeply, and in 1871 with his own health deteriorating, he returned to England to recuperate and take care of business items involved with the mission work.

Of Maria's and Hudson's nine children, three died at birth and two in childhood. The four who reached adulthood all later became missionaries with the China Inland Mission. In 1897 Hudson's & Maria's only surviving daughter, Maria Hudson Taylor, the wife of John Joseph Coulthard, died in Wenzhou, leaving four little children and her husband in sorrow. She had been instrumental in leading many Chinese women to Christianity during her short life.