Eliza Jane Gillett Bridgman

Eliza Jane Gillett Bridgman (1805–1871) was one of the first American female missionaries to live and work in China. She arrived in Hong Kong in 1845 and that same year married Elijah Coleman Bridgman, the first American Protestant missionary in China. She was a teacher and educator. She founded schools for Chinese girls in Shanghai and Beijing, often with her own money. She died in Shanghai.

Early life Bridgman was born May 6, 1805 in Derby, Connecticut, the youngest of nine children of Canfield and Hannah Gillett (sometimes Gillet). Her father died when she was ten and she moved with her mother to New Haven. She graduated from a boarding school at age sixteen and became an assistant teacher at the school. She had a religious experience in 1821. In 1823, she moved with her mother to New York City and in 1827 became the principal of a boarding school. She was appointed to be a missionary teacher in China by the Protestant Episcopal Church on November 14, 1843 and on December 14, 1843, departed New York on the ship Horatio. On board were nine missionaries, including Bishop William Jones Boone Sr. and two other unmarried female teachers, Mary J. Morse of Boston and Emma G. Jones of Mobile, Alabama. The three women were among the first unmarried female missionaries sent to China.

At the end of the First Opium War (1839-1842), the British imposed the Treaty of Nanking on China, the first of the "unequal treaties." The treaty opened several port cities in China to foreign businessmen and missionaries and ceded Hong Kong Island to the United Kingdom. Bridgman's party arrived at Hong Kong on April 24, 1845, after a journey of more than four months. The Nanking Treaty was in effect, enabling them to establish a mission in one of the treaty ports. After marrying, she changed her affiliation to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), and the Congregational Church.

In February 1852, the Bridgmans began the journey back to the United States due to the poor health of Elijah. He recovered and in April 1853, the couple arrived back in Shanghai. During her visit to the U.S., Eliza wrote a book titled The Daughters of China. By 1859, she had three girls' schools in Shanghai with about 75 students. Elijah died in 1861 and she also suffered from poor health. She returned to the United States in 1862, and her school was transferred to the Presbyterian Mission. She was badly injured while in the United States by a runaway horse. During her visit to the U.S., she wrote a biography of her husband titled The Life and Labors of Elijah Coleman Bridgman. Eliza Jane Gillett (1853) Daughters of China; or, Sketches of Domestic Life in the Celestial Empire