Troubles In The Field

William and Dorothy Carey and their four sons arrived in Calcutta on November 11, 1793. They soon exhausted their funds and found themselves dependent on others for food and shelter. In the next seven months, they moved five times.

Dorothy struggled with bleeding brought on by tropical diseases. Then the family sustained a cruel blow on October 11, 1794, when their 5-year-old son Peter died. The painful weeks after his death passed slowly, but at Christmas the family made a brief holiday trip to Malda. William wrote in his last journal entry for the year that they were all much refreshed by the trip.

But no one could have predicted what was going to happen in the next three months. At some point before March 1795, Dorothy slipped across the subjective border between sanity and insanity. She was to remain locked in the grip of psychosis for the remaining twelve years of her life.

James R. Beck, “Dorothy’s Devastating Delusions,” Christian History Magazine-Issue 36: William Carey: 19th C. Missionary to India (Carol Stream, IL: Christianity Today, 1992).