Education
Both men studied Russian, and in January 1818, having received authorisation to begin their missionary work, began the 4000-mile sledge journey to Irkutsk.
Both men studied Russian, and in January 1818, having received authorisation to begin their missionary work, began the 4000-mile sledge journey to Irkutsk.
He translated the Bible into Mongolian. A Congregationalist, Edward Stallybrass trained at Homerton College in London, a college for Free Church men who were at that time still barred from Oxford and Cambridge Universities. He was ordained at Stepney in 1816, and in the same year became engaged to Sarah Robinson (1789–1833).
Mission in Russia When Stallybrass arrived in Saint St. Petersburg in 1817, he was joined by Cornelius Rahmn (born 1785) from Gothenburg.
On the way, they stopped in Moscow and were granted an audience by Alexander I of Russia, who told them that "he had given most positive orders..that every facility should be afforded" to the missionaries. Arriving in Irkutsk, they soon found the area unsuitable.
Stallybrass visited various places before setting up a mission station in Selenginsk (modern-day Novoselenginsk) in 1819, among the Buryat people. He was joined by two Scotsmen, William Swan (born 1791) and Robert Yuille (born 1786).
Rahmn"s wife was unable to handle the Siberian climate, and the Rahmns moved to Sarepta.
Stallybrass and his company moved their mission to Khodon in 1828, where Sarah died and was buried in 1833. In 1835 Stallybrass returned to England via Denmark. Work at the mission consisted of preaching, tract distribution, schools work and the translation of the Scriptures into the Buryat language.
Return to England After his return, Stallybrass was headmaster of the Boys" Mission School, Walthamstow, and pastor at Hampden Chapel, Hackney.
From 1858 to 1870 he was a pastor at Burnham, Norfolk. He died on 25 July 1884 in Kent, and is buried in Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington.