1900 - Duncan, Caroline, & Jennie Kay

August 30, 1900

Quwo, Shanxi

The Kay family.

A colourful Scottish evangelist, Duncan Kay, was stationed with his wife Caroline and daughter Jennie at Quwo in southwest Shanxi Province. They had previously worked for years in the Yangtze River valley in central China, but the intense summer heat contributed to a general breakdown of health, so in 1889 the China Inland Mission transferred the family to the more temperate climate of Shanxi.

Duncan Kay was a gifted preacher. He was an evangelist through-and-through and nothing delighted him more than sharing the truths of the gospel with a crowd of people. He used many illustrations and stories in his preaching, which endeared him to his listeners. Kay also taught at the mission school he had helped establish after the missionaries saw the need to provide Christian education to Chinese children.

Caroline Kay was also a gifted speaker and encountered much success in women’s ministry. She led the women’s work in both Quwo and in the many villages throughout the countryside where fellowships of believers had sprung up. The Kays had three other children who were safely on the coast, attending the boarding school at Chefoo (now Yantai) in Shandong Province. When the Boxer trouble intensified, Caroline Kay wrote to a colleague, “The news is alarming, and it makes one feel sick to think of what may be the result of all this, but God knows. I do feel badly when I think of our dear children at Chefoo—not for their safety, but in case they might be left without their parents.”[1]

A trusted Chinese Christian told Duncan Kay, “We will stand by you to death.” Kay replied, “And we will stay until driven out.”[2] When the Boxers launched their attack the Chinese friend was true to his word. He arranged to whisk the Kay family and three single women missionaries into the mountains, where some caves had been carefully selected to offer the best chance for the missionaries to evade their bloodthirsty pursuers. From the cave, Caroline Kay was able to send a heartfelt letter to her children at Chefoo:

“My Dearest Children—

We came up here to get away from the Boxers, thinking it was out of the way, and we might be able to stay over this time of difficulty and go back in two months. But we are molested every day by bands of bad men who want money from us. Now our money is all gone we feel there is nothing for us but to try and get back to the city; this is no easy matter, and the roads are full of these bad people who seek our lives.

I am writing this as it may be my last to you. Who knows but we may be with Jesus very soon. This is only a wee note to send our dear love to you all, and to ask you not to feel too sad when you know we have been killed. We have committed you all into God’s hands. He will make a way for you all. Try and be good children. Love God. Give your hearts to Jesus. This is your dear parents’ last request.

Your loving papa, mama, and wee Jennie.”[3]

Soon after this letter was sent, Duncan and Caroline Kay and Jennie were seized by the Boxers and ferociously butchered. The three single women, who were hiding in a different cave, were not detected and survived the ordeal.

When the Boxer threat subsided and punishment was metered out to many of those involved with the violence, the Kay family was given proper burial. The local magistrate, a non-Christian, composed an elegy for the slain family which was read out at the funeral. In part it said:

“Alas! Pastor Kay, with his wife,

Pitied us Chinese, sunk into the abyss of sin,

Serving the devil, driven at his will;

Glad to do all kinds of evil, performing no kind of good—

Unable to escape the punishment of hell,

Where the fire of brimstone is not quenched,

Where the evil worm injures continually.

The Pastor, with his wife, purposely sent by God,

Came at great risk across the ocean.

They attached little weight to their lives,

They did not begrudge money

To come to our Land of China, to preach the Gospel far and wide.

They opened places of worship, they preached

To save male and female; desirous that all men

Should walk with them to Heaven.

In Quwo they opened a hall, and for more than ten years

Explained the Scriptures, and tended the sheep of the Lord.

They opened free schools, and taught boys and girls;

They prepared men of ability, to be pillars of the Church

The Pastor led the brethren to preach the Doctrine

In the towns and villages—

Saving men with earnestness from the snare of the devil.”[4]

1. Broomhall, Martyred Missionaries of the China Inland Mission, 41.
2. Hefley, By Their Blood, 23.
3. Broomhall, Last Letters and Further Records, 28-29.
4. “Chinese Elegies on Missionary Martyrs,” China’s Millions (May 1902), 67.