Guide to the Female Domestic Missionary Society of Philadelphia Records

In 1816 a group of Philadelphia women, concerned at the zeal of Catholic missionaries in the city, banded together to collect subscriptions to support an evangelical missionary to preach the Gospel in the Almshouse, the Pennsylvania Hospital, and the Walnut Street Prison. They named their association the Female Domestic Missionary Society of Philadelphia. By August of 1816 they had raised $410 and employed Francis Ballentine as their missionary.

The Philadelphia Almshouse, which was renamed Philadelphia General Hospital in 1835, became the special care of the Society. By 1860 all the Society's funds were devoted to supporting a missionary to the General Hospital, and at this time its name was changed to "The Female Domestic Missionary Society for the Support of the Gospel in the Almshouse and Vicinity."

In 1916 the Society turned its funds over to the Philadelphia Presbytery's management. In 1959 the Presbytery surrendered this responsibility to the Presbyterian Foundation. In 1976 the members voted to dissolve the Society.