James Laughton Papers

James Fyfe Laughton was born in northwest China, son of Scottish Presbyterian missionary parents. He attended the Quaker Mission School for missionary children in Chongqing (Chungking). He went to Scotland for further study and attended various academies, and the Technical Naval College in Greenock. He was in the British Naval Service but resigned to become a missionary. Feeling the need for further study, he went to the U.S. in 1910 and attended Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. He was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1912 and served as pastor of the First Baptist Church, Westport, New York for seven years. In 1920 he was called by the American Baptist Foreign Mission Society to captain their mission ship "Fukuin Maru" sailing among the islands of the Inland Sea and coast of Japan.

Laughton returned to the U.S. in 1926 after the work of the "Fukuin Maru" was turned over to the Japanese, traveling widely on the way. The next few years were spent lecturing before various church and community groups and teaching. In 1929-1930 he served as Associate and Executive Secretary of Religous Education in the state of Maine. He was then called to become the pastor of the Woodhaven Baptist Church, Queens, New York, where he served for ten years. He traveled to Germany in 1934 to study the political, religious, and social conditions there. He served as chaplain for various ocean cruise lines during the 1930s.

Laughton was a lecturer at the International Seminary, East Orange, New Jersey prior to his call to the First Congregational Church, Ticonderoga, New York in 1941. He later served the Rugby Congregational Church in Brooklyn, NY and the Prospect Heights Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, NY. He had a particular interest in inter-racial and inter-creedal groups. Laughton also was a writer, columnist, and cartoonist for various newspapers. He died in June, 1962.