Vallings, Frederic Ross (1826-1877) and Family. Archive of Letters from Missionaries in India.
Collection of correspondence sent to family members in the U.K. by various members of the Vallings family, comprising more than 120 pages of letters by F.R. himself, and an additional thirty to forty pages by others, including one twenty-page example; including an eight-page letter home to F.R.'s sister, describing his difficult travels, encounters with bandicoots, terrible weather, a very long snake, corrupt police, and religious intolerance; an eight-page letter written by F.R. to his mother mentioning his approach to teaching the gospels, fellow clergy from the States, and the perils of local ants, wasps & elephants; a four-page letter about the dress and arms of local indigenous people, including some discussion of local religious practices; letters from F.R.'s wife Isabel; and others written by Adolphus, Charlotte, Gertrude & George Vallings, many addressed to F.R.'s sister Charlotte [Aunt Charlie or Aunt Charles]; including a parchment bank wallet owned by Charlotte junior; sizes and condition vary.
Vallings was graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge University, and although he studied law, he professed his calling to serve the church instead. He arrived in India sometime around 1860, working in Calcutta and later Chota-Nagpur from 1872 until his death in 1877. He died during the sea journey home and was buried at sea. (cf. Mission Field: Monthly Proceedings of the S.P.G., 1877; John Ebenezer Marks, Forty Years in Burma 1917 ;[and] Eyre Chatterton, A History of the Church of England in India.)
