Hannah Marshman

In 1794, the couple moved from Westbury Leigh in Wiltshire to Bristol, where they joined the Broadmead Baptist Church.

Although there was a threat of a French naval attack, the family landed safely at the Danish settlement of Serampore (a few miles north of Calcutta) on 13 October 1799.

The spirit of the early community's unity was somewhat broken when new missionaries arrived who were not willing to live in the communal fashion that had developed.

There were also other differences, as the new missionaries found their seniors - particularly Joshua Marshman - to be somewhat dictatorial, assigning them duties which were not to their liking.

In 1800, when she first met them, Marshman was appalled by the neglect in which William Carey and his wife looked after his four boys; aged 4, 7, 12 and 15, they were unmannered, undisciplined, and even uneducated.

Together they shaped the boys as Carey pampered his botanical specimens, performed his many missionary tasks and journeyed into Calcutta to teach at Fort William College.

At one point, Marshman wrote about Carey, "The good man saw and lamented the evil but was too mild to apply an effectual remedy."