During the reign of Rama III, records showed in 1828 Jacob Tomlin and Karl Gutzlaff were the first Protestant missionaries to live in Thailand, welcomed by Carlos de Manuel Silveira who allowed them to live in his residence. Gutzlaff was also one of the first missionaries to China and Korea.
The American Baptist Foreign Mission Society sent a series of missionaries to Siam to prepare them for eventual assignment to China. China wouldn’t allow them entry whereas Siam did. In 1831 Rev. David Abeel came to Siam to survey the land and to begin mission work as a representative of the Board .
In 1833 , Rev. John Taylor Jones with his wife Eliza Grew Jones were true pioneers of this American missionary fervor. Again, Carlos de Manuel Silveira helped them to rent accommodations behind the Portuguese Consulate, (later on the Board was recorded as first owner of the Warehouse30 plot of land in the 1900s.). As more missionaries arrived, the Mission built a chapel, dwellings, a printing press, a type foundry, a book bindery and library.
Above picture: Reverend John Taylor Jones
Above picture: Eliza Grew Jones
In fact Dr. Dan Beach Bradley brought the first Thai language printing press to the Baptist Mission on Captain Bush Lane between 1835 and 1838. The printing house finally started printing all the religious tracts, fliers and books that had been translated into Thai. All the Protestant sects, Baptist, Congregational, and Presbyterian recognized that publications were an important tool for winning converts. So Warehouse30 was the site of introduction of the first Thai script printing press capable of printing Thai script within Siam itself.
Above picture: Dr. Dan Beach Bradley
Above picture: A sketch of the simple residences the Missionaries inhabited (1830s-50)