1900 - Silvester & Mrs. Whitehouse

July 9, 1900

Taiyuan, Shanxi

Silvester Whitehouse and his wife.

Silvester Frank Whitehouse was born in Birmingham, England, in 1867. When he was still a child his God-fearing mother dedicated him to the Lord’s service, praying that he might one day become a missionary. After graduating from school, Whitehouse entered the business world, but spent most of his spare time reading and preparing for missionary service. In 1888 he went to China as the personal assistant to Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission.

After four years Whitehouse returned home to attend to some business. While there, Silvester Whitehouse studied under the tutelage of Dr. Grattan Guinness, and returned to China with the National Bible Society of Scotland. He met and married Miss Legerton, who was teaching in the school for missionary children in Shandong Province. For the next three-and-a-half years, Silvester Whitehouse travelled almost continually around China, providing the Scriptures to Christians of all denominations. Due to his unrelenting schedule his health broke down, and he was forced to resign his post and return to England. For the next two-and-a-half years he studied under Charles Spurgeon, the ‘Prince of Preachers.’ In July 1899 Silvester Whitehouse and his wife were accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society of London, and he returned to China for the third time, under the third different mission.

During the long ocean journey from England the Whitehouse’s five-year-old son, Harold, grew ill from the constant rocking. He died and was buried when the ship docked at Singapore. This was a severe blow to the couple, but less than a year later they were reunited with him in heaven. On July 9, 1900, Silvester and Mrs. Whitehouse were among the 34 Protestant martyrs killed at Taiyuan.[1]

1. Strangely, none of the books written about the Boxer martyrs in 1901 mention Silvester Whitehouse or his wife as among those killed at Taiyuan. A later account, written in 1904, does list them (see Forsyth, The China Martyrs of 1900, 441-443). Perhaps it was not widely known that the Whitehouse’s were in Taiyuan at the time of the massacre until much later.