CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · General Reference

Mary J. Farnham

British-born American missionary in Shanghai (1833-1913)

Cross-disciplinary reference desk with index cards, atlas, dictionary and catalogue
General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 10, 2025
Entity authorityQ98970940 ↗
Source-derived summary

Mary J. Farnham (née Scott; November 22, 1833 – February 22, 1913) was a British-born American missionary and temperance advocate. For 20 years, she served as president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union (W.C.T.U.) of China. As a missionary to Shanghai, Farnham conducted a free day school for poor girls and a large boarding school.

Early life and education

Mary Jane Scott was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, November 22, 1833. Her parents were Thomas Scott (1807-?) and Catherine (nee Dean) (1809-1832).

She was educated privately. A total abstainer from childhood, she was always interested in temperance work.

In 1854, after both parents died in a single day by a cholera epidemic, Farnham emigrated to the U.S. to live with her sister in New York, locating first in Albany, and afterward in Brooklyn.

Career

On May 4, 1859, she married the Rev. John Marshall Willoughby Farnham (1839-1917) in Schenectady, New York, and in October of that year, sailed with her husband for China, both Mr.

Editorial summary

“Mary J. Farnham” enters the record as british-born American missionary in Shanghai (1833-1913). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Mary, Farnham and British-born can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1833, 1913, 1807, 1809—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1833-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Mary, Farnham and British-born.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Mary J. Farnham” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Mary, Farnham and British-born provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 10, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q98970940. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1833, 1913, 1807 and 1809.

Critical limits

The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mary J. Farnham”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mary J. Farnham primary sources, Mary J. Farnham archive and Mary research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Mary J. Farnham”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Mary J. Farnham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.