William David Rudland
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Protestant missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
to China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
with the China Inland Mission
China Inland Mission
OMF International is an interdenominational Protestant Christian missionary society, founded in Britain by Hudson Taylor on 25 June 1865.-Overview:...
. He was one of the pioneer missionaries that were recruited in the early years of the agency by Hudson Taylor
Hudson Taylor
James Hudson Taylor , was a British Protestant Christian missionary to China, and founder of the China Inland Mission . Taylor spent 51 years in China...
. Serving over forty years in China, Rudland translated the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
into the Taizhou
Taizhou, Jiangsu
Taizhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province of eastern China. Situated on the north bank of the Yangtze River, it borders Nantong to the east, Yancheng to the north and Yangzhou to the west....
vernacular (a romanized version), and published the work at the printing press that he operated with a native helper. In the year 1906 alone, Rudland's press (that had been brought over with the Lammermuir Party
Lammermuir Party
The Lammermuir Party of 1866 was a British Protestant Christian group of missionaries to China with the China Inland Mission led by James Hudson Taylor, who were identified with the tea clipper Lammermuir which brought them to China. Mission historians have indicated that this event was a turning...
in 1866) printed 1000 Psalms with references, 500 copies of Genesis, 2000 Chinese character tracts, and 20,000 other Chinese character books.
Beginnings
William Rudland was born in HarstonHarston
Harston is a village to the south of Cambridge, England.-Harston House:Harston House is a historic private house in Harston. It was formerly known as Harston Hall....
, but lived in Eversden, Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, the son of William Rudland and Abigail Newman. He was a blacksmith
Blacksmith
A blacksmith is a person who creates objects from wrought iron or steel by forging the metal; that is, by using tools to hammer, bend, and cut...
and a farm mechanic by trade.
Rudland was not disqualified for service as a missionary by his lack of formal education or ordination. The newly formed China Inland Mission was recruiting from all classes of society, seeking only individuals with a common devotion to the “Great Commission” given by Jesus, to “Preach the gospel to every creature”. Rudland joined the mission and accompanied the “Lammermuir Party” to China, leaving London in May, 1866.
Missionary experiences
During the treacherous four month voyage to China, Rudland made use of his blacksmith skills to make small repairs to the Lammermuir (clipper)Lammermuir (clipper)
The second ship to bear the name Lammermuir was an extreme composite clipper ship built in 1864 by W. Pile & Co of West Hartlepool for John "Jock" "White Hat" Willis & Son, London...
. There were daily language lessons in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
– something that Rudland struggled with a great deal at first. But his determination was noteworthy. He is quoted as saying: The group arrived in China on 30 September 1866.
One of the fellow missionaries aboard the vessel was an attractive woman named Mary Bell. She had managed to gather the attention of many of the sailors to attend Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
studies with her during the voyage. Evidently, she did not go unnoticed by Rudland, either. The two were married the following year in China.
Initially, all of the “Lammermuir Party” lived in Hangzhou
Hangzhou
Hangzhou , formerly transliterated as Hangchow, is the capital and largest city of Zhejiang Province in Eastern China. Governed as a sub-provincial city, and as of 2010, its entire administrative division or prefecture had a registered population of 8.7 million people...
, under the close leadership of Hudson Taylor. Frederick Howard Taylor
Frederick Howard Taylor
Frederick Howard Taylor a.k.a F. Howard Taylor , was a British pioneer Protestant Christian missionary to China, author, speaker and second son of James Hudson Taylor, founder of the China Inland Mission , and Maria Jane...
and his wife, Geraldine later recalled the situation:
After the Rudlands were married, the couple endured the violence of the Yangzhou riot
Yangzhou riot
The Yangzhou riot of August 22–23, 1868 was a brief crisis in Anglo-Chinese relations during the late Qing Dynasty. The crisis was fomented by the gentry of Yangzhou who opposed the presence of foreign Christian missionaries in the city, who claimed that they were legally residing under the...
of 1868. One of the targets of the rioters was the printing press that Rudland operated there.
Work in Taizhou
In 1869, Rudland and his family were assigned to the city of Taizhou, JiangsuTaizhou, Jiangsu
Taizhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province of eastern China. Situated on the north bank of the Yangtze River, it borders Nantong to the east, Yancheng to the north and Yangzhou to the west....
, where he would spend many years.
William and Mary had several children in China: Ebenezer William Rudland born September 1868 in Zhenjiang
Zhenjiang
Zhenjiang is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Jiangsu province in the eastern People's Republic of China . Sitting on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, it borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Changzhou to the east, and Yangzhou across the river to the north.Once...
, Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
; Marie Annie Rudland born November 1869; Charles Rudland born 1871; and Grace Bell Rudland born August 1872.
In 1870, little Annie died and she was buried at the mission premised at Hangzhou next to the Taylor's daughter, Grace Dyer Taylor
Grace Dyer Taylor
Grace Dyer Taylor was the eldest surviving daughter of James Hudson Taylor and Maria Jane Dyer, Christian missionaries to China...
. However, due to the danger of offending Chinese cultural practices, her grave was removed to the small Protestant cemetery in Zhenjiang, again next to the Taylor family plot. The cemetery was destroyed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution.
Mary’s struggle with tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
was failing in 1874 and they attempted to return to England on furlough for her to recover. She died on 23 October 1874 in London.
William married another missionary named Brealey and continued to serve in Taizhou. Wallace George Rudland was born to the couple in October 1876. Rudland was widowed a second time in 1878. The following year, on 16 December 1879, he was married again to another missionary named Annie K. Knight. Anna Rosa Rudland was born to them in September 1880.
Rudland made a second furlough to England in November 1887. He returned to China and lived in Taizhou until his death of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in January, 1912.
Further reading
- Historical Bibliography of the China Inland Mission
- List of China Inland Mission missionaries in China