The eccentric Baptist millionaire
by Thomas Ray
Robert Arthington, Jr. was born May 20, 1823, in Leeds, England. His parents, Robert Sr. and Maria Arthington, were devout and active members of the Society of Friends. Robert Sr. was a wealthy brewery owner. His wealth allowed young Robert to attend Cambridge University where he excelled as a student.
In 1848, events in his family would produce a major impact upon his future. He, his mother, and two of his three sisters were baptized by immersion and withdrew from the Society of Friends. Robert Jr. found his spiritual home at South Parade Baptist Church in Leeds. In about 1850, Robert Sr. adopted temperance principles, closed his brewery, and refused to sell the business even though he had several lucrative offers.
In 1864, Robert Sr. and his wife died within a couple of months of one another. They left their son a sizeable fortune of 200,000 pounds, or about $1 million USD at the time. Even though he was an accomplished scientist, Robert Arthington had only one interest, the conversion of the heathen. He invested part of his inheritance, investments that would grow beyond his wildest dreams. However, he committed himself to poverty, depriving himself of all but the barest necessities, choosing to live in only one room of a large and spacious home, cooking his own meals, and wearing the same coat for 17 years, that he might contribute more money to world evangelization.
Why would a man expose himself to poverty when wealth was at his disposal? He had received a letter from a missionary friend which read: “Were I in England again, I would gladly live in one room, make the floor my bed, a box my chair, another my table, rather than the heathen should perish for the lack of knowledge of Jesus Christ.” Robert Arthington was determined to make that kind of self-denial the pattern for his life.
Arthington was a premillennialist who believed when the unevangelized had heard the gospel, Christ would return. Acting upon this belief, he devoted his time and fortune to those parts of the world where the gospel had not been heard.
Due to his secretive nature, no one knows how much money Arthington invested in missionary enterprises. However, we know that in 1877 he gave the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS), which he had supported for years, 1,000 pounds with the understanding they would open a mission in the Congo. He also built a steamboat named “Peace” at a cost of 4,000 pounds. He would later supplement this with an additional gift of 1,000 pounds. This money was given on condition that the BMS would advance up the Congo (Zaire) River with an ultimate goal of meeting a possible extension of the London Missionary Society’s Tanganyika Mission (which was also financed by Arthington.)
In 1882, he contributed to the BMS 10,000 pounds to explore the upper Nile region. Arthington’s vision was not limited to the Congo. He gave 3,000 pounds to establish a mission in Uganda. In 1889, he established and was the sole supporter of a mission among the fierce headhunters of Northeast India. He also established a mission in Assam (Thailand.) He contributed thousands of pounds to advance missionary work in China. He paid for the construction of a steamer built in America to be used in South America.
Arthington operated his vast missionary interest without the aid of any personal secretary or assistants. It is hard to imagine how a man who was so interested in money had no idea of the extent of his personal wealth. Just three years before his death, he was shocked when he was informed that his wealth had increased to 1,273,849 pounds (about $5 million USD.) Arthington willed all his fortune to missions; the Baptist Missionary Society received the majority of the funds. As he approached death, he asked to have read to him the Sermon on the Mount and Psalm 72. When the reading was finished, he remarked: “Yes, it is all there — all!” His tombstone reads, “Robert Arthington, His life and wealth was devoted to the spread of the Gospel among the Heathen.”