Charlotte Bass Perkins

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Charlotte Bass Perkins (August 2, 1808 – December 15, 1897) was an American Christian missionary. She lived at the mission in Urmia, Iran from 1835[1] to 1857;[2][3] her husband Justin Perkins was also a missionary.[2]

Biography[edit]

Charlotte Bass was born in Middlebury, Vermont to William and Fidelia Bass.[4] She attended Ipswich Female Seminary in 1832[5] and married Justin Perkins in July 1833. Earlier that year, Justin had accepted a commission to work among the “Nestorians” (Assyrian Church of the East members, also referred to as East Syriac Christians) from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In September 1833, Justin and Charlotte departed the United States from Boston, ultimately destined for Persia.[1] They stayed with other missionaries in Istanbul, Turkey for five months before moving on in May 1834. Charlotte Perkins became the first American woman to cross the Black Sea during their continued journey.[6] She also delivered her first child during their journey on August 26, 1834 while in Tabriz, Iran. She was ill and unaware of the birth of her daughter for the first three days. Charlotte survived, though her husband later said that she never did fully recover from the effects of this illness.[7] Eventually, the Perkinses, along with Asahel Grant and Judith Grant, arrived in November 1835 to Urmia, where they would establish their mission.[6]

Justin and Charlotte remained at the Urmia Mission from then until July 1841 when they left to journey to the United States on account of Charlotte’s health. They reached New York in January 1842[1] and remained in the United States until in March 1843 they again left to return to the mission in Urmia.[8] Charlotte continued to live and work at the mission until 1857. By then, she had had seven children: four who died before the age of 1, one who died at age 3,[9] one who died at age 12, and one who would live into adulthood. The loss of her twelve-year old daughter Judith Grant Perkins especially effected Charlotte’s health and well-being.[1]

In September 1857 Charlotte and her only surviving son, Henry Martyn Perkins, left Urmia to return to the U.S. on account of her health and for his education.[1] Justin returned to the United States in 1858. When Justin again left the United States to return to Persia in 1862, Charlotte was committed to the McLean Asylum for the Insane in Somerville, Massachusetts.[10] In 1863 she wrote a letter to the directors asking that she be released, but this request was denied.[11] At an unknown later date, Perkins was released from the asylum. She was with her husband Justin when he died in 1869 in Chicopee, Massachusetts.[1] Charlotte was living with her son Henry Martyn Perkins in Woolwich, Maine when she died in 1897 in her ninetieth year of age.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Perkins, Henry Martyn (1887). Life of Rev. Justin Perkins, D.D. : pioneer missionary to Persia. Knox - University of Toronto. New York : Fleming H. Revell.
  2. ^ a b c "Notes for the Month". Missionary Herald. 94: 113. March 1898 – via HathiTrust.
  3. ^ "The Missionary herald / American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions v.46 (1850)". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  4. ^ Carleton, Hiram (1903). Genealogical and family history of the state of Vermont; a record of the achievements of her people in the making of a commonwealth and the founding of a nation;. Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center. New York, Chicago, The Lewis Publishing Company.
  5. ^ Catalogue of the officers and membres of Ipswich Female Seminary, for the year ending Oct. 1832. Salem, Mass. 1832. p. 3.
  6. ^ a b Perkins, Justin. Historical sketch of the mission to the Nestorians / by Justin Perkins, and of the Assyria mission, by Thomas Laurie. State Library of Pennsylvania. John A. Gray.
  7. ^ Taylor, Gordon (2009). "Deep Waters: Life and Death in the Perkins Family, 1834-1852" (PDF). Journal of Assyrian Academic Studies. 23: 65.
  8. ^ "The Missionary herald / American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions v.39 (1843)". HathiTrust. Retrieved 2019-06-17.
  9. ^ Becker, Adam H. (2015-03-11). Revival and Awakening: American Evangelical Missionaries in Iran and the Origins of Assyrian Nationalism. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226145457.
  10. ^ Marquardt, Janet (2018). "' … we congratulate ourselves that reason has not with us yet left its seat': first generations of American missionary women in the Near East". Women's History Review. 28. doi:10.1080/09612025.2018.1435166. S2CID 149667944.
  11. ^ Shedd, Susan Flint. Letter to Justin Perkins. 23 April 1863. In the Justin Perkins (AC 1829) Papers in Amherst College Archives & Special Collections.
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