American Historical Ephemera & Photography

CALDERWOOD, William (1823-1889). Archive of three letters to Walter Greenwood, Calderwood's uncle. Saharanpur, India, 17 July 1856, 13 January 1857, and 28 April 1858.

Calderwood was born in Scotland but his family emigrated to Massachusetts sometime in the early 19th century. He and his wife Elizabeth Phoebe Greenleaf (1835-1859) were Presbyterian missionaries and departed Boston on the Brutus on 17 July 1855, arriving in Calcutta on November 7th. A Historical Sketch of the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church. lists that the "Rev. William Calderwood and his wife" were stationed in Mfafuarnagar "a few miles south of Saharanpur." In his first letter to his uncle, dated 17 July 1856, Calderwood notes that "we find an abundance of work to do and plenty of encouragement to do it...my chief business now is to learn the language, + in this I get along much easier than I expected." He also writes of his educational responsibilities: "since last April I have had the charge of the English school, + the number from the city has very much increased."
 
In 1857-1858, the First War of (Indian) Independence (sometimes historically referred to as the Indian Rebellion of 1857) broke out in Meerut. The conflict continued, concentrated in Uttar Pradesh (where Calderwood was located) and the Upper Ganges plain. Calderwood writes in a letter dated 13 January 1857, before the official uprising in Meerut on 10 May 1857 about the rising tensions: "We have no fears of any war now, but when I wrote Grandma about it there was great danger + you would have thought so too, if you had seen and read what we did in the English papers and known the feelings of the English about it, I never felt afraid that we should be left to beg + starve if there was war + we [were] cut off from our Friends + the Board. But I was afraid that many of our Institutions would be broken up for want of funds if we were prevented from leaving or communicating with the Board for any length of time."

The resentments that caused the War were diverse, including land taxes, treatment of the Indian upper class, British-style social reforms, and others. One fear among many of the Indian populace was that the British East India Company was planning on masterminding mass conversions of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. This was partly prompted by the increased presence of missionaries, such as Calderwood. Christians were often targeted, and in his last letter, dated 28 April 1858, he addresses the Christian experience during the War: "I think I promised you in my last that I would write you again presently...telling you about what some of our native Christians did at the time this rebellion was at the highest. In Futtehgurh I think there were 100 native Christians & not one so far as we can find out renounced his religion at the times of the troubles here." He continues with several anecdotes of Christian victims and survivors. Calderwood spent the rest of his life in India, dying in Landour, Bengal on 22 May 1889.