Born in Rouen, France. Delamarre entered the seminary of the Paris Foreign Mission Society in 1833 and was ordained on 20 Dec 1834. In 1835 he arrived in China from France, entering both Sichuan and Hong Kong clandestinely. He became the interpreter for the French representative Gros during the second Opium War.
In Oct 1860, when China was forced to sign the unequal Beijing Treaty, Delamarre, taking advantage of his position as translator, personally added to the Chinese translation of Treaty No. 6 the following clause: “and allowing French missionaries the freedom to purchase or rent land for building purposes.” When the French soldiers left Beijing, Delamarre, holding a French passport, departed Beijing via Baoding, Henan, and Shaanxi. He arrived in Sichuan in Jan 1862. He was protected through his departure by local Chinese magistrates. Delamarre left behind a handwritten draft of a Chinese-Latin-French dictionary.
Attribution
This article is reproduced, with permission, from A Dictionary of Asian Christianity, copyright © 2001 by Scott W. Sunquist, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan. All rights reserved.
Sources
- Cohen, Paul A., China and Christianity (1963).