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Zerub Baillie of Old Calabar |
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Birth |
Marriage |
Death |
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On ___, 1831, at ___ |
To Mary Marshall Cowan, on June 7, 1860, at 2 Steads Place, South Leith |
On August 4, 1865 at Liverpool, England. Buried in the Grange Cemetery, Edinburgh. |
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Parents |
Siblings |
Children |
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William Baillie (1806-1858) and Margaret Baillie née Hislop (1806-1862) |
Andrew Baillie, John Baillie, Robert Baillie, Elizabeth Baillie |
Willie Baillie, and an adopted Nigerian boy |
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Zerub Baillie of Old Calabar Rev. Zerub Baillie was sent by the
Broughton Place congregation of the United Church of Scotland to the mission
of the church at Old Calabar (present-day Nigeria) in May 1856. (The Old
Calabar mission had been founded in 1846 by members of the United Secession
Church which later became the United Church of Scotland.) Rev. Baillie went
to Ikorofiong and then to Ikonetu, 10 miles north-west of Duke Town, on the
Cross River. He quickly became a "favorite of the local people" as
he had studied medicine in order to promote his missionary endeavors, and
drew crowds to the dispensary at Duke Town. He was "able-bodied,
energetic, and full of good humour". He journeyed on the river in a
sloop in order to meet his potential parishioners. He and the other
missionaries promised King Eyo that they would keep their mission stations
free of traders. He returned to Britain for a few months at the end of 1859, and married Mary M. Cowan, returning with her to Old Calabar on August 6, 1860. |
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Marriage record of Zerub Baillie and Mary Cowan Zerab Baillie, 29, missionery [sic], bachelor, Old Calla[bar?], West Africa Present residence: 23 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh Son of William Baillie, merchant, Fountain Hall by Stow, & Margaret Hislop Mary Cowan, 26, [no occupation], spinster, 2 Steads Place, South Leith Dau. of Rev. John Cowan, missionery [sic], & Margaret Marshall No relationship [between the parties being married] Married 7.6.1860 at 2 Steads Place, South Leith, after banns, according to the forms of the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland, by Andrew Thomson, minister of Broughton Place U.P. Church, Edinburgh Witnesses John Baillie, James Marshall Ref: M-1860-692/2-78 South Leith MLN Presumably the witness John
Baillie is Zerub Baillie’s younger brother who later also became a missionary
in Old Calabar. |
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In 1861 Zerub was joined by his
brother Rev. John Baillie. In September 1862 his wife and
child "sickened and died", presumably of malaria. Rev. Zerub
Baillie stayed on in Old Calabar until 1865 when he too became ill, but
"he too died almost as soon as he reached Liverpool" (McFarlan, p.
68). The Rev. Zerub Baillie was a
cousin of the father of Rev. John Baillie, the pioneer SAGM missionary in
Swaziland. The key link confirming
the genealogical evidence uncovered by Dr. J.A. Robertson is the chance
remark by Kathleen Mary Jemison (née Baillie) in her biography of her father
John Baillie that he had "two uncles who died of fever when missionaries
in West Africa". These “uncles” were the brothers Zerub and John. The former died when Rev. John Baillie of
Swaziland was 10 years old; he would have been old enough to attend the
funeral. |
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Death the
believer's sleep: a discourse A sermon by Rev. W. Anderson, at the United Presbyterian Church, Broughton Place, Edinburgh, August 13, 1865, about the death of Rev. Zerub Baillie. The full text, 47 pages. (The document is formatted so as to most nearly approximate the original.) |
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The title page
of the book
From the original edition |
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A page of
tribute |
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The dedication
page, from the original edition |
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The opening
page |
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The gravestone of Zerub Baillie A transcript of the monumental inscriptions in the Grange Cemetery [Scottish Genealogy Society Library, Edinburgh, unpublished, stone no. 305] has: William Baillie, merchant, Fountainhall, died 21.9.1858 aged 53. His wife Margaret Hislop d. 2.4.1862 aged
56. Their son Robert d. 1837 aged 16
months. Thr(ee?) children died in
infancy. Their dau. Eliza d. 1844
aged 11 months. [On reverse of stone] Rev. Zerub Baillie, d. 4.8.1865 aged 34,
after 9 years in Old Calabar. His
wife Mary Marshall Cowan, d. at Old Calabar, 13.9.1862 aged 28. Their only child Willie d. 26.9.1862 aged
13 months. Rev. John Baillie,
missionary, Old Calabar, d. 7.5.1864 aged 29. Agnes Brown, wife of Rev. Andrew Baillie, d. at Lucea,
Jamaica, 25.11.1872 aged 31. |
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Sources: (1) Name of brother
Andrew, story of the last days of his life, wife’s death and children’s
death, adoption of a Nigerian boy: Anderson, William, 1865. Death the
believer's sleep: a discourse delivered in the United Presbyterian Church,
Broughton Place, Edinburgh (Rev. Dr. Thomson's), on Sabbath, August 13, 1865,
on occasion of the death of the Rev. Zerub Baillie, missionary from Broughton
Place Congregation to Old Calabar. Edinburgh: Andrew Elliot. 47 pages.
Available in the libraries of Edinburgh University and of the Harvard
University Divinity School. (2) Jemison, Kathleen
Mary, née Baillie, c. 1970. John and Annie of Swaziland. Children's
story book about her parents, John and Annie Baillie. A partial (14 pages)
translation of the original which was written in Zulu. (3) Details about
missionary deployment, dates, etc.: McFarlan, Donald M., 1946. Calabar:
the Church of Scotland mission, 1846-1946. London, New York: T. Nelson
and Sons Ltd. Available in the Library of Congress. (4) The marriage record
of Zerub Baillie (c. 1831-1865) and Mary Cowan: kindly furnished by Dr. J.A.
Robertson, a genealogist in Edinburgh, on October 21, 2002. (5) Year of birth of
Zerub Baillie, as 1831: by back-calculating from the marriage record date and
age. Also, as 1831: back-calculating
from his age as “thirty-four” from William Anderson (1865). (6) Year of birth of
Zerub Baillie, as 1834: from McFarlan (1946) and William Anderson (1865). (7) Date of death, as
August 4, 1865: from William Anderson (1865). Coincides with the death date supplied on the gravestone (see
transcription). (8) Transcription of the family gravestone of William Baillie and Margaret Hislop: : kindly furnished by Dr. J.A. Robertson, a genealogist in Edinburgh, on October 21, 2002. |
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