Ann Nancy Haseltine Judson . . .a Missionary Life

Yes, Lydia, I have about come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and to where God in his providence, shall see fit to place me ~ Ann Haseltine in a letter to a friend.

Ann's early life

Our cousin Ann "Nancy" Haseltine (3C7X) was born in 1789 in Bradford, MA. We wrote about her father John Haseltine (2C8X) and her sisters, Abigail and Mary in our three prior posts.

Much of the information I have on Ann comes from an article titled "The Life and Significance of Ann Hasseltine Judson" by Sharon James. James has degrees in history from Cambridge University, and theology from Toronto Baptist Seminary. She taught history for several years in the UK and in Malawi.

Note: Though Ann was commonly known as Nancy, in our two posts about her we will use Ann as James does to avoid confusion.

From James' article:

Ann, affectionately known as “Nancy,” was born just before the Christmas of 1789 in Bradford (Massachusetts). The youngest of five children, she was doted on by the family, and was an especial favourite of her warm-hearted father, John Hasseltine (2C8X). Lively, adventurous, cheerful, determined, and highly intelligent, she was not in the least overshadowed by her four older siblings—John, Rebecca, Abigail and Mary.

Note: Ann was not the youngest child in the family. Her brother John Hall Haseltine (3C7X) was born in 1791.

She had a wonderfully happy childhood, and by her early teens she was sparkling, popular, and very attractive: always in demand for parties and other social events. In her youth her main concerns were friends and socialising. Her father had constructed a special dance hall attached to their house, and this was the centre of social life for the Bradford young people. Like most families in the town, the Hasseltines attended the Congregational Church that stood at the centre of the community both geographically and socially. But religion was fairly undemanding; at present the main business of life was enjoyment.

In her diary, Ann described herself in those early years:

During the first sixteen years of my life, I very seldom felt any serious impressions. . .I was early taught by my mother. . .the importance of abstaining from those vices to which children are liable—as telling falsehoods, disobeying my parents, taking what was not my own, etc. She also taught me, that if I were a good child, I should, at death, escape that dreadful hell, the thought of which sometimes filled me with alarm and terror. I therefore made it a matter of conscience to avoid the above-mentioned sins. . .At the age of twelve or thirteen, I attended the academy at Bradford, where I was exposed to many more temptations than before. . .

Note: Ann must have been among the first students at the Academy which was established in 1803.

I now began to attend balls and parties of pleasure, and found my mind completely occupied with what I daily heard were “innocent amusements”. . .For two or three years I scarcely felt an anxious thought relative to the salvation of my soul, though I was rapidly verging towards eternal ruin. . .I was surrounded with associates, wild and volatile like myself, and often thought myself one of the happiest creatures on earth. . .From December 1805 to April 1806. . .my time was mostly occupied in preparing my dress, and in contriving amusements for the evenings, which portion of my time was wholly spent in vanity and trifling. I so far surpassed my friends in gaiety and mirth, that some of them were apprehensive that I had but a short time to continue in my career of folly, and should be suddenly cut off. . . 

By the age of 15, Ann was anxious to turn her life around. A phrase she read in a book began her conversion: "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” But her conversion was slow. According to James, "[s]he made some good resolutions, but soon broke them. . .Because of peer pressure she was embarrassed to be too open about any desires to be godly." By age 16, Ann was still in limbo. She wrote wrote of her confusion:

I often used to weep, when hearing the minister, and others, press the importance of improving the present favourable season, to obtain an interest in Christ, lest we should have to say, The harvest is passed, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. I thought I should be one of that number, for though I now deeply felt the importance of being strictly religious, it appeared to me impossible I could be so. . .

Shortly afterwards, a visit to an aunt "she had known to be a godly woman" sent her in the direction she longed to go:

I began to discover a beauty in the way of salvation by Christ. He appeared to be just such a Saviour as I needed. I committed my soul into his hands… I now began to hope, that I had passed from death unto life…O how different were my views of myself and of God, from what they were, when I first began to enquire what I should do to be saved!. . . I attended my studies in school with far different feelings and motives from what I had ever done before. I felt my obligation to improve all I had to the glory of God. . .

Ann wasn't the only one in the family struggling with matters of faith. At a public revival in town, Ann Hasseltine "publically professed a saving faith in Jesus Christ." At the same event, her parents her four sibling all were also converted and joined the Congregational Church in Bradford.

Five years later, Ann's committment to God would lead her to a husband and a life of service overseas.

Ann's choice

Adoniram Judson was a year older than Ann. As a young man, his faith was less in limbo than hers. Very early on he found himself passionate "about his commitment to take the Gospel to the unreached." He, along with a group of other young men, were working to establish a mission agency. In June of 1810, Adoniram's group arrived in Bradford and, before the General Association of Congregational ministers, volunteered to go overseas for missionary work. According to James, '[t]his was unprecedented in American church history, and the beginning of the American mission movement."

Note: James' assertion that Adoniram's missionary work was "unprecedented" is not true. The first American missionaries were George and Hannah Liele who went to Jamaica in 1783. It is true, however, that Adoniram's mission work set off a wave a like mission work and he is often called the "Father of American Missions."

After presenting his offer to preach overseas, Adoniram and his group were invited to lunch at Cousin John's home. Ann, who was 21 at the time, was present at the lunch. According to James, Adoniram "was instantly enthralled" with her. Three months later, the couple were in love and Adoniram wrote the following to Ann's parents:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure for a heathen land, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of a missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean; to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left his heavenly home and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God?

As hard as it may have been, the Haseltine's "left the choice to Ann" who decided not only to marry Adoniram but to join him on his mission overseas.

She knew she would probably never see her family again: the voyage was far too long, perilous and expensive for the possibility of any visit from relatives or friends. Letters took months, and might well never arrive. There was no established mission network to give support or counsel. There was no American Embassy in Asia to give protection. There was no certainty that these pioneer missionaries would even find a place in which they could safely minister. Nothing was guaranteed: neither safety, health, toleration, and least of all success.

Ann described her feelings about her decision in her journal:

I have at length come to the conclusion, that if nothing in providence appears to prevent, I must spend my days in a heathen land. I am a creature of God, and he has an undoubted right to do with me, as seemeth good in his sight. I rejoice, that I am in his hands – that he is everywhere present, and can protect me in one place as well as in another. He has my heart in his hands, and when I am called to face danger, to pass through scenes of terror and distress, he can inspire me with fortitude, and enable me to trust in him. Were it not for these considerations, I should with my present prospects sink down in despair, especially as no female has, to my knowledge, ever left the shores of America, to spend her life among the heathen; nor do I yet know, that I shall have a single female companion. But . . . whether I spend my days in India or America, I desire to spend them in the service of God, and be prepared to spend an eternity in his presence.

the voyage

By February of 1812, Adoniron and his group were ready to get their missionary work under way. War with Britain was looming large so, when they found two ships that were soon to sail for India, they made the decision to leave immediately.

In just two weeks, the weddings, the ordinations, the farewells, the packing and the fund-raising all had to be fitted in. On Wednesday February 5th, Adoniram and Ann were married in the room in Ann’s home where they had first met. . .The same day there was a farewell service for Ann and her friend Harriet, who was shortly to marry Samuel Newell. Ann was twenty-one, Harriet just eighteen.

The risks of sea travel were such that is seemed sensible to divide the group between the ships. Ann and Adoniram would go in ‘the Caravan’, along with Samuel Newell and his new wife. . .Harriet. Two single young men, plus another young couple, would sail in ‘the Harmony,'

On board the ship, Ann wrote this in her diary:

Feb. 18. Took leave of my friends and native land. . .I found it more tolerable than I feared. Still my heart bleeds. O America, my native land, must I leave thee? Must I leave my parents, my sisters and brothers, my friends beloved, and all the scenes of my early youth? . . .Yes, I must leave you all, for a heathen land, an uncongenial clime. Farewell, happy, happy scenes, -- but never, no, never to be forgotten.

The journey took a challenging four months but, upon arriving in Calcutta, Ann was enchanted by what lay before her. In a letter to her sister Abigail, she wrote:

I have never, my dear sister, witnessed or read any thing so delightful as the present scene. On each side of the Hoogly (River), where we are now sailing, are the Hindoo cottages, as thick together as the houses in our sea-ports. . .They are situated in the midst of trees, which hang over them, and appear truly romantic. The grass and fields of rice are perfectly green, and herds of cattle are every where feeding on the banks of the river.

Below is a view of the Hoogly River painted in 1789 by William Hodges:

In spite of Ann's first impression, all was not roses for the group in India. After their arrival "there was then a year and a half of further travel, delays, frustrations and fear." Twice the group was thrown out of the country so they "set off for Mauritius where likewise they were not allowed to establish a mission." Then tragedy hit when fellow missionary Harriet Newall and her new born infant both died of sickness "brought on by horrendous conditions at sea." The loss of her friend and companion was a severe blow for Ann.

Conversion

On the journey overseas, Adoniron and Ann had done extensive study of the bible. They came to the painful conclusion that "believer’s baptism was the New Testament pattern." So deep was their faith in the power of baptism, they renouced their connection to the Congregational Church and embraced the Baptist religion. They were both "baptised by immersion" in Calcutta.

Below is a drawing of the La Bazaar Chapel where the Judsons were baptized:

This decision meant inevitable separation from the Congregational Association, which was sponsoring their mission work. Because of this separation there would be no certainty of future support, as the American Baptists had not yet entered the field of foreign missions. Perhaps more difficult, there had to be a separation from those they had gone out with, as it would be confusing to have two different teachings on baptism in the same mission. Ann wrote in her journal of the difficult decision:

It is painfully mortifying to my natural feelings, to think seriously of renouncing a system which I have been taught from infancy to believe and respect, and embrace one which I have been taught to despise. . .I have been examining the subject of baptism for some time past, and, contrary to my prejudices and my wishes, am compelled to believe, that believers’ baptism alone is found in Scripture. . .laying aside my former prejudices and systems, and fairly appealing to the Scriptures, I feel convinced that nothing really can be said in favour of infant baptism or sprinkling. We expect soon to be baptized. As a result, we must make some very painful sacrifices. We must be separated from our dear missionary associates, and labour alone in some isolated spot. We must expect to be treated with contempt, and cast off by many of our American friends – forfeit the character we have in our native land, and probably have to labour for our own support, wherever we are stationed.

Luckily for Ann and Adoniron, one of their fellow missionaries, Luther Rice, had come to the same conviction. When he was forced by ill health to return to America, Luther proved to be a tireless advocate of foreign missions among American Baptists who agreed to take on the Judson’s support in their mission overseas.

Ann, like both her sisters, was a passionate advocate of female education. When she first arrived in India she was "tremendously impressed" with the girls’ school at Serampore which was run by Hannah Marshman. She wrote home:

Good female schools are everywhere needed in this country. I hope no Missionary will ever come out here, without a wife, as she, in her sphere, can be equally useful with her husband. I presume Mrs. Marshman does more good in her school, than half the ministers in America.

Ann and Adoniron were not long in India, however. After their conversion to the Baptist religion, they made another big decision. They would leave India and go to Burma for their missionary work.

Their story will continue in our next post.