March, 1817: The Great Bible Translator, Benjamin Bailey, reaches Kottayam.
Rev. Thomas Norton, was the first missionary of the Church Missionary Society to reach Kottayam on 19 June, 1816. A year later the second missionary, Benjamin Bailey and his wife Elizabeth, reached Kottayam on March, 1817. Benjamin Baily translated and printed the New Testament into Malayalam in 1829, and the full Bible was translated and printed in 1841-42. In 1846, he also published the first English-Malayalam dictionary. He returned to England on 20 March, 1850 after 33 years of mission work in Kerala.

Benjamin Bailey