History
It was founded in 1837 by David Nasmith, who also founded the Female Aid Society and various other spiritual and charitable organisations, as a breakaway institution from the London City Mission founded two years earlier (‘Reports of the London City Mission,’ Quarterly Review, vol. 7, no. 14, January 1857)
Nasmith’s vision of numerous related organisations all working together from a single “Philanthropic Institution House” was at odds with some of the other members of the London City Mission, including Rev. Robert Ainslie, who feared Nasmith's efforts would be spread too thin, and that the Mission would suffer a loss of reputation and funds as a result (Robert Ainslie to the Committee of the London City Mission, 4 February 1837; in John Campbell, Memoirs of David Nasmith: His Labours and Travels in Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada, 1844)
Nasmith was the original Secretary of the Country Towns Mission (John Campbell, Memoirs of David Nasmith: His Labours and Travels in Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada, 1844)
Nasmith died in 1839; its Secretary in the 1850s was Thomas Geldart (Country Towns Mission Record, November 1853)
Its non-denominational members visited the sick and dying, encouraged church attendance and Christian conversion, and sent children to Day and Sunday Schools (‘Reports of the London City Mission,’ Quarterly Review, vol. 7, no. 14, January 1857)
It apparently no longer exists
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What was reforming about it?
It was non-denominational
Where in Bloomsbury
Its premises seem to have been in Red Lion Square from an early stage (‘Reports of the London City Mission,’ Quarterly Review, vol. 7, no. 14, January 1857), probably at no. 20, Nasmith’s original “Philanthropic Institution House”
By 1847 it and these other institutions were based at no. 27 Red Lion Square (Country Towns Mission Record, November 1853), and it was still there in 1857 (The Times, 12 March 1857)
In 1853 four of its Examiners of Missionaries were local Bloomsbury clergymen: Rev. James Hamilton DD, of the Scotch Church, Regent Square; Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel MA, of the John Street Chapel, Rev. Thomas Nolan, MA, of St John’s Chapel, Bedford Row, and Rev. George Albert Rogers, MA, of the Regent Square Church (Country Towns Mission Record, November 1853)
By 1873 it was based at no. 11 Red Lion Square, according to the Royal Blue Book of that year, and it was still there in 1881 (William E. Blackstone, General Directory of Missionary Societies, 1881)
Website of current institution
It no longer exists
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Books about it
There is an account of its foundation and relationship with Nasmith’s other institutions in John Campbell, Memoirs of David Nasmith: His Labours and Travels in Great Britain, France, the United States, and Canada (1844)
Archives
None found
Its Annual Reports were published; those from 1857–1861 are available in the British Library
The Mission also published its own journal, the Town and Village Mission Record, later the Country Towns Mission Record, and later the Country Towns Mission Magazine, in the 1850s and 1860s; copies are available in the British Library
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