Lammermuir Party

The Lammermuir Party was a British group of eighteen Protestant missionaries and four children who travelled to China in 1866 aboard the tea clipper Lammermuir. The Party was led by James Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission (CIM). Historians have cited this event as a turning point in the history of Protestant missionary work in China in the 19th century. This was the largest group of Protestant missionaries to date to arrive at one time on Chinese shores. Moreover they were atypical of missionaries. None of the members of the Party were ordained ministers, only two had any previous overseas experience, and most came from the British working class. Among them were nine unmarried women traveling to a place where single European women were rare. Taylor required the CIM missionaries, both male and female, to dress in Chinese fashion which was much-derided by the foreign community living in China.

The accomplishments of the Lammermuir Party were more symbolic than quantifiable. Many of the missionaries died or left the CIM shortly, and dissention among its members caused problems. However, the Lammermuir Party was prominent in the public eye and inspired a much larger effort on the part of Christian missionaries to work in China and attempt to convert Chinese to Christianity. The CIM became the largest Protestant missionary organization in China.