An introduction for those engaged in biographical research on individuals who have served as members of the Anglican clergy, concentrating on the 17th century onwards, and including archival, manuscript and printed resources.

And a brief survey covering Lambeth Palace Library sources for the costume of both pre-Reformation English clergy and post-Reformation Anglican clergy. The Library also holds some material relating to the dress of clergy of other denominations and countries.

Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.

Further information on clergy and parish history can be found at the Building on History [5] project.

Lists of all the Archbishops of Canterbury, including dates of birth and death (where known), dates of periods in office, places of burial, coats of arms, locations of wills (where ascertainable from biographical sources), details of images of the archbishops, and sources of biographical information. Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides. One covers 597-1070, the other 1052 to the present day.

There is also information on where Archbishops were educated, and where their confirmation of election took place.

The Library has also produced specific guides to its sources relating to Archbishops Reginald Pole and Thomas Cranmer, links below right.

Information on the extent of the diocese of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Canterbury's peculiar jurisdiction.

Details of papers held by the Library relating to medical licences issued by the Archbishop of Canterbury between 1535-1775, through the Vicar General or the Faculty Office.

Information on visitations carried out by Archbishops of Canterbury and Bishops of London, and the related records held by the Library.

Lists of Lambeth degrees, granted by the Archbishop. There are some chronological gaps in the early records. Note that the National Archives class C 58 (Chancery dispensations, from 1595) also includes information on Lambeth degrees.

Guide to key sources on the Church of England and the First World War.

Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.

Further information can be found at the Building on History [21]project.

Information on manuscript and printed sources held at the Library which have particular relevance to the lives of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, Mary Tudor and Mary Stuart.

The Library has also produced a guide to the sources it holds on royal coronations, principally of British monarchs, but also from earlier periods and overseas.

Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.

An overview of the sources held at Lambeth Palace Library for family history and genealogy, although the Library is unlikely to be the best starting point for such research.

The Library holds a small amount of marriage records, principally bonds and allegations relating to those married by licence issued under the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Library has produced a separate guide to this material.

Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.

Additional information can be found at the Building on History [32]project.

Please note that only rarely do the Library's records refer to specific individuals employed at Lambeth Palace.

A brief guide to the archive and manuscript holdings which are of relevance to the study of architecture.

Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.

See also the Church Heritage Record [35].

Further help can be found at the Building on History [36] project.

Guidance for local historians, including sources widely available and sources held at Lambeth Palace Library relating to individual counties.

Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.

Information on sources held at the Church of England Record Centre and Lambeth Palace Library relating to many aspects of the history of church property.

Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.

The records also include various maps which are summarised in the additional research guide, below right.

The Building on History project, a collaboration between Lambeth Palace Library, the Open University and King's College London, and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, has produced an online historical guide for researching the history of the Diocese of London.

Click here [40] to access the guide.

Information on sources held at the Church of England Record Centre and Lambeth Palace Library relating to many aspects of the history of education.

Click on the attachment, below right, to download this research guide.

Further information may be obtained at the Building on History [43]project.

For more information on the Library Records, 1610-1785, including details on catalogues, shelf marks and other evidence for the history of the Library collections, see the research guide. A further guide covers the period 1785-1952.

See also a selective bibliography of books and articles which detail the history of the Library, including its work and its buildings.

Click on the attachments, below right, to download these research guides.

Information on this religious movement, originating in England in 1831, and often referred to as Irvingism.

Click on the attachment, right, to download this research guide. 

From 1279 to 1642, the registers are the principal record of the Archbishop's administration. After the Restoration the registers were superseded in importance by the Archbishops' Act Books, part of the Vicar General archive.

The registers include institutions and appointments of clergy, grants of dispensations, ordinations, appointments of bishops, sede vacante administration of suffragan sees, diocesan and metropolitical visitations by the archbishop, visitation of monasteries, records of convocation, and heresy trials.

There are a large number of published finding aids to Archbishops' Registers (details attached right).

A micropublication of the Archbishops' Registers, 1272-1640 is available from World Microfilms Publications [53]. This also includes the cartulary of the see of Canterbury (MS 1212). 

The Archbishops' Papers are the official papers of the Archbishop of Canterbury. They are wide-ranging, covering political and social issues as well as ecclesiastical history in Great Britain and more generally throughout the Anglican Communion. Apart from correspondence they includes diaries, sermons, newspaper cuttings, and reports on ordinands.

Although there are small collections for some earlier Archbishops, the papers mainly date from the mid 19th century onwards. They are often very extensive; for example those of Archbishop Davidson run to over 800 volumes.

The Archbishops' Papers are subject to a thirty-year closure rule.

Much of this material is available through our online catalogue, but there are also several published finding aids (see attachment, right).

Minute books of the Bishops' Meetings, a gathering of diocesan and suffragan bishops in England and Wales, chaired by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and held biannually from 1871.

The collection is subject to a fifty-year closure rule.

The Carte Miscellanee or Lambeth Charters date from the 12th century, and include royal charters relating to archiepiscopal estates, patents of appointment of officials, bonds from recusants, returns of diocesan clergy made for Archbishops Grindal in 1576 and Whitgift in 1591, records relating to the London tithes dispute, 1634-9, to the Great Plague and Fire, 1665-6, and to the abbey of St Benet of Holme, Norfolk.

The collection was brought together and numbered as MSS. 889-901 in the early 18th century, but was disbound and renumbered as CM I-XX in the early 1960s.

The series has been continued with the addition of archiepiscopal records, the East Kent deeds of the Langleys and Peytons of Knowlton relating to Knowlton and Sandown, and various acquisitions from the late 12th century to the 20th century. These include a late 13th century roll of Augustinian statutes, 16th century deeds for various monasteries, including St. Augustine's, Canterbury, Christ Church, Canterbury, and Southwark priory, libri cleri for the diocese of Norwich, sede vacante, 1499, and for the diocese of Canterbury, 1610, professions of obedience to Archbishop Warham, 1504-23, and acta of Archbishop Warham, 1507-12.

Further information is available in:

Owen, D.M. A Catalogue of Lambeth Manuscripts 889 to 901 (Carte Antique et Miscellanee), (1968).

Carte Antique et Miscellanee: Supplementary Series (CM 23-55): a Catalogue.

Churchill, I.J. East Kent Records. A Calendar of Some Unpublished Documents and Court Rolls in the Library of Lambeth Palace, (Kent Records, vol. 7, 1922). [Now CM 31-36].

Convocation is the ancient legislative assembly for the province of Canterbury, which since the 15th century met as two houses, the upper house of bishops, presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the lower house (of clergy) who elect their own chairman.

From its prorogation in 1717 until its revival in 1852, Convocation conducted no business whatever, its meetings being purely formal. The records comprise act books of the upper and lower houses, and committee papers mainly from 1865 onwards.  Earlier records of Convocation were often recorded in the mediaeval archbishops' registers and were printed in David Wilkins' Concilia (1737).  From 1858, proceedings of Convocation were published in The Chronicles of Convocation.

The Council on Foreign Relations originated in resolutions passed by the Church Assembly in 1927 and 1932.   Its terms of reference were the “survey and promotion of the Relations of the Church of England with Foreign Churches”, that is Churches outside the Anglican Communion, and its inaugural meeting  was held on 2 February 1933 with Archbishop Lang in the chair.   From 1959 until 1964 its remit was enlarged to include ecumenical relations within Great Britain, such as relations with the Church of Scotland, during which time it was known as the Church of England Council on Inter-Church Relations.  The Council was the church’s official organ for dealing with overseas churches until the creation, in 1970, of the General Synod with its Board for Mission and Unity.  It was reconstituted as the Archbishop of Canterbury’ s Counsellors on Foreign Relations on 1 January 1972 and its work was finally wound up in 1981 when Archbishop Runcie brought ecumenical relations  within the administrative structures and staffing of Lambeth Palace.

The Council functioned through a central committee and separate committees dealing with each of the churches: the Ancient Oriental, Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed, and Old Catholic Churches, all of which reported ultimately to the Archbishop of Canterbury through the Chairman and Secretary.   Chairmen have included A.G. Headlam, Bishop of Gloucester, and George Bell, Bishop of Chichester, and CFR’s first Secretary was Canon John Douglas.  The Headlam, Bell and Douglas Papers are all held in the Library.

The CFR papers are extensive and wide-ranging.  Each committee produced minutes and series of numbered information documents for internal circulation, as well as subject files arranged by country dealing with ecumenical visits, ecumenical dialogues and exchange programmes for foreign clergy.  Although they deal mainly with ecclesiastical relations they also have rich political content, especially for wartime Europe, the British Mandate in Iraq, and relations with Communist Eastern Europe.  The files also deal with high-level relations with the Papacy and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and there is detailed coverage of, for example, the Second Vatican Council.

The Court of Arches is the court of appeal of the Archbishop of Canterbury and dates back to the 13th century. However, with the exception of a small quantity of pre-Restoration material, the very extensive archive dates from 1660 onwards. In its heyday the court exercised an extensive jurisdiction over marriage, probate and testamentary disputes, defamation, church property (rates, tithes, fabric of churches), and morals of the clergy and laity. For further context, see the collection summary [56].

The collection includes over 2000 process books, transcripts of proceedings in the lower court sent up on appeal, and exhibits, including mediaeval title deeds (Fineshade cartulary), court books, probate accounts, churchwardens' accounts, rate books etc.

Further information is available in: Houston, J. (ed.) Index of Cases in the Records of the Court of Arches at Lambeth Palace Library 1660-1913 (Index Library, vol. 85, 1972). The data is also available in the online catalogue [57].

See also a list of documents in the Arches E series newly catalogued in 2017, via the link on the right hand side of this page.

A further project in 2018 provided new catalogue descriptions of Arches series Ee (answers by plaintiffs and defendants to allegations against them 1640, 1662-1798) and series Eee 1-10 (testimony by witnesses 1664-1713), including numerous corrections, enhancements of data, identifications of people and places, and, for the first time, details of witnesses. These corrections and identifications have not been carried forward to entries for the same suits in other series. This means that, when researching an Arches suit, series Ee and Eee are a good entry point.

Several series of Court of Arches records were published in microformat by Chadwyck-Healey Ltd. and copies are available to consult in the Library.

The process books (series D) are also available from the British Library [58].

For information on parallel series of records for the Province of York courts see: www.york.ac.uk/library/borthwick/projects-exhibitions/church-court-records/cause-papers [59]

The Faculty Office was set up under Peter's Pence Act of November 1533 to issue 'licences, dispensations, faculties, compositions, and rescripts, etc.' previously granted by the pope or papal curia.

With the exception of three muniment books or registers, the archive dates from 1660 and comprises records of the grant of a variety of dispensations throughout England and Wales, including dispensations to hold benefices in plurality, marriage licences, of appointment of public notaries in the British Isles and colonies, and the conferment of Lambeth degrees (W. Stubbs, 'Lambeth degrees', The Gentleman's Magazine, 1864, Vol 216, pp.633-8, 770-2 lists degrees granted to 1848. For degrees 1848-1948, see MS. 1715, pp. 89-113). Also included are a few medical licences, and dispensations for ordination.

The Papers of the Lambeth Conference, which met first in 1867 and roughly every ten years thereafter, comprise verbatim accounts of the proceedings, committee minutes, correspondence and photographs.

The subjects covered by the Conferences were wide-ranging, spanning social and political issues as well as matters of ecclesiastical and theological significance throughout the world (see the published reports and resolutions, and Davidson, R.T. (ed.), The Six Lambeth Conferences, 1867-1920, 1929).

A collection of papal bulls and rescripts, some of which were addressed to the Archbishop of Canterbury, but the majority of which relate to monastic houses, which came to Lambeth following the dissolution of the monasteries. The collection was arranged by A.C. Ducarel in the 18th century and bound up as MSS. 643-4. In 1960, the collection was disbound and numbered.

A Micropublication of the papal bulls is available from World Microfilms [53] in "Lambeth Palace Library: the medieval manuscripts" section II (Law MSS.), reel 18.

Further information is available in:

Sayers, J.E. Original Papal Documents in the Lambeth Palace Library. A Catalogue, (Bulletin of I.H.R., special supplement no. 6, 1967). 

Records of the administration of the estates of the Archbishops of Canterbury situated principally in Kent, Surrey and Middlesex, but including property in Buckinghamshire, Lancashire, and Sussex. These include accounts, court rolls, leases, maps, plans, rentals, surveys and valuations, correspondence and related papers.

The composition of the temporalities was extensively changed by the Henrician exchanges whereby Archbishop Cranmer received a number of the former monastic estates in Kent and Lancashire in exchange for some of his more valuable properties in Kent and Surrey (see F.R.H. Du Boulay, The Lordship of Canterbury, 1966).

Further information is available in:

Sayers, J.E. Estate Documents at Lambeth Palace Library. A Short Catalogue, (1965). Includes court and account rolls for a few religious houses, including Christ Church, Canterbury, and the convent of St. Benet of Hulme, Norfolk, and for mediaeval bishops of Bath and Wells, Chichester, and Winchester.

The records of the Vicar General of the Archbishop of Canterbury relate to the ecclesiastical administration of the province, diocese and peculiars of Canterbury, mainly from 1660.

The collection includes the Archbishops' Act Books, which supersede the Archbishops' Registers as the principal record of archiepiscopal administration from 1663. They provide the link between the two major aspects of his metropolitical and primatial jurisdiction exercised through the Vicar General and the Faculty Office.

The Act Books record the appointments of bishops, the institution of clergy in the diocese of Canterbury, sede vacante appointments of clergy throughout the province of Canterbury, licences to officiate, to practise medicine, surgery, or midwifery, dispensations to clergy to hold in plurality, and appointments of proctors and advocates of the Court of Arches.

With the exception of the subscription books, diocesan surveys, and visitation returns, and a small collection of visitation act books, 1540-1640, most of the purely diocesan records are held by Canterbury Cathedral Archives.

For information on the extent of the diocese of Canterbury and the peculiar jurisdiction of the Archbishops, see the Library research guide on the the diocese.

These 1200 manuscripts include most of the mediaeval manuscripts, the Bacon, Carew, and Shrewsbury papers together with the collections of Archbishops Laud, Tenison, and Secker, and of two Lambeth Librarians, Henry Wharton, and Edmund Gibson.

Several catalogues of this material have been published:

Todd, H.J. A catalogue of the archiepiscopal manuscripts in the library at Lambeth Palace (1812)

James, M.R. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Lambeth Palace: The mediaeval manuscripts, (Cambridge, 1932).

Ganz, David and Roberts, Jane eds. Lambeth Palace Library and its Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, exhibition mounted for the biennial conference of the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists, 3rd August 2007, (London, Taderon Press, 2007). Copies available from Garod Books (email: gomidasinstitute@gmail.com [62]).

Pickering, O.S. & O'Mara, V.M. The Index of Middle English Prose: handlist 13.  Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library including those formerly in Sion College Library (Cambridge, 1999).

The mediaeval manuscripts number over 600, and date from the 9th to the 15th century. Their range and quality are impressive, covering illuminated manuscripts, biblical texts, law books, liturgical and patristic collections, devotional works, saints' lives, sermons, chronicles, cartularies, and letters.

These mediaeval manuscripts, together with a few manuscripts acquired since 1932, are available on microfilm from World Microfilms [53] arranged in 8 sections: 1) Old English, French etc., 2) law, 3) illuminated, 4) humanistic, 5) theology, 6) biblical, 7) liturgy, 8) patristic manuscripts.

Photographs of a large number of the illuminations and rubricated initials in the mediaeval manuscripts may be purchased from the Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London, WC2R 0RN. Permission to purchase copies must first be given by Lambeth Palace Library.

For an additional guide to manuscripts of Canterbury provenance, please click the link on the right hand side of this page. 

Lambeth manuscripts are included in pp. 1-8 of:

Frere, W.H. Bibliotheca musica-liturgica. A descriptive handlist of the musical and liturgical manuscripts of the middle ages..., (1894).
 
Researchers interested in musical manuscripts may find the Digital Image Archive of Medieval Music (DIAMM) website [63], of use.

These manuscripts were collected by Sir George Carew during his period in Ireland as President of Munster for the purpose of writing the history of the island from the reign of Henry II to that of Queen Elizabeth. The completion of the project was undertaken by his natural son, Sir Thomas Stafford in Pacata Hibernia, 1633.

Microfilms of the Carew Manuscripts are available from World Microfilms [53]. Further information on the papers can be found in:

Brewer, J.S. and Bullen, W. (eds), Calendar of the Carew Manuscripts Preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library at Lambeth, (6 vols, 1867-73).

James, M.R., 'The Carew Manuscripts', English Historical Review, vol.42, 1927, pp.261-267

Report to the right honourable the master of the rolls upon the Carte and Carew Papers in the Bodleian and Lambeth libraries, 1864.

Papers of Anthony Bacon, son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who entered the service of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex, and was private secretary for foreign affairs. The papers are primarily concerned with his official duties and family matters and cover the years 1579-98. The collection was used extensively by Thomas Birch in Memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 1754.

A micropublication of the Bacon Papers is available from World Microfilms [53]. Further information on the papers can be found in:

Bill, E.G.W. Index to the Papers of Anthony Bacon (1558-1601) in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS. 647-662), (1974).

Papers of the Earls of Shrewsbury from the 15th century to the death of Gilbert Talbot, 7th earl, in 1616, though they do not survive in any quantity before Francis Talbot who succeeded to the earldom in 1538.

The earls, whose principal family seat was at Sheffield, with large estates radiating into Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire and Herefordshire, were influential figures, both locally and nationally, as lord lieutenants and privy councillors. Francis, 5th earl, was also president of the Council of the North, and Gilbert, 6th earl, was custodian of Mary Queen of Scots. See also the Talbot Papers (MS 3192-3206).

A micropublication of the Shrewsbury papers is available from World Microfilms [53]. Further information on the papers can be found in:

Jamison, C., revised by Bill, E.G.W. A Calendar of the Shrewsbury and Talbot Papers in Lambeth Palace Library and the College of Arms. Volume I: Shrewsbury MSS. in Lambeth Palace Library (MSS. 694-710), (H.M.C., JP6, 1966).

Papers belonging to Edmund Gibson, Lambeth Librarian, and later Bishop of London, comprising correspondence of Archbishop Tenison, papers of Anthony and Francis Bacon, and of Thomas Murray, secretary to Charles I as Prince of Wales, relating to foreign affairs.

A micropublication of the Gibson MSS. is available from Cengage Learning [64].

Parochial returns from fifteen hundred incumbents to an enquiry into the value of benefices in 1705, prepared for a publication on the 'present state of parish churches'.

Correspondence and papers brought together by Archbishop Secker relating to the American and West Indian Plantations, Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG), foreign Protesants overseas, the Sons of the Clergy, the Faculty Office, and the royal family, 1758-1768. For other Secker papers, see MS 2559-98, and Archbishops' Papers.

MS 1123 and MS 1124 are available on film in the micropublication by World Microfilms [53]: Lambeth Palace Library. Miscellaneous American Material 16th-18th Centuries.  

The collection consists of fifty-five Greek manuscripts acquired by the Library since its founding in 1610, including those received from Sion College in 2006. The MSS date from the tenth to the nineteenth centuries and include: 

• Gospel Books and Lectionaries, Acts and Epistles Books and Lectionaries, and the Book of Revelation
• Octateuch with catena (MS 1214)
• Patristic and other theological texts including works of John Chrysostom (Sion L40.2/G5), Gregory of Nazianzus (Sion L40.2/G7), and John of Damascus
• Liturgical and hymnographic texts

• Classical texts by Aeschylus and Dionysios Periegetes (MS 1203), Pseudo-Aristotle and Plutarch (MS 1204), Lycophron (MS 1205), and Demosthenes (MS 1207)

• Post-Byzantine texts including a Chronicle in vernacular Greek by an anonymous author (MS 1199), and Damaskenos Stoudites, On Animals (Sion L40.2/G12).

Among the most important manuscripts is MS 461, containing a theological treatise on the procession of the Holy Spirit by George Scholarios (later Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Gennadios II), with his autograph signature, notes and corrections. This was left to the Library by Archbishop Abbot (d.1633).

Many of the manuscripts (MSS 1175-1207) were collected during his visits to the eastern Mediterranean by J.D. Carlyle, Professor of Arabic at Cambridge, for a proposed new critical edition of the New Testament which was left unfinished on his death in 1804, though collations by Carlyle’s assistants can be found in MS 1255.  Some of the Carlyle manuscripts were returned to their rightful owner, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, following their acquisition from Carlyle's heir by Archbishop Manners-Sutton in 1806.  The work of collation was carried on by Charles Burney who left the fruits of his examination of the Carlyle MSS to the Library on his death in 1817 (MSS 1223-1224, 1259).

The Library is grateful to The A. G. Leventis Foundation http://www.leventisfoundation.org/en [65] for a generous grant to fund the cataloguing of these manuscripts by Dr Christopher Wright and Ms Maria Argyrou under the supervision of Dr Charalambos Dendrinos and for our ongoing collaboration with the Hellenic Institute, Royal Holloway University of London:

https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/research-and-teaching/departments-and-schools/history/research/our-research-centres-and-institutes/the-hellenic-institute [66]

Further information can be found in:
Todd, H.J. An account of Greek manuscripts, chiefly biblical which had been in the possession of the late Professor Carlyle ... now deposited in the archiepiscopal library at Lambeth Palace, [1823].

The Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library, An exhibition held on the occasion of the 21st International Byzantine Congress, London, 22-23 August 2006 (London, 2006).

Wright, Christopher, Maria Argyrou and Charalambos Dendrinos. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library (2016):
https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/media/5131/catalogue.pdf [67]

These manuscripts were acquired mainly between 1812 and 1970.

They include the household book of Anne Cranfield, Countess of Middlesex, 1622 (MS 1228), statutes and other records of various hospitals in Surrey and Kent (MS 1354, MS 1410-14) and of the cathedrals of Durham and St. Paul's (MS 1500, MS 1515), papers of Sir Roger Twysden, 2nd bart. (MS 1389-94), of Robert Mylne, surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1764-1801 (MS 1489), of the Revd. William Beauvoir, 1715-21, especially on relations with the Gallican Church (MS 1552-8), of Francis Lee, M.D., and Dr. John Lee, ecclesiastical lawyer (MS 1559-60), of Joshua Watson, 1802-52 (MS 1562), of Edmund Gibson, Bishop of London, 1699-1737 (MS 1741-3) of Francis Horsley, half-brother of Samuel Horsley, Bishop of St. Asaph, 1785-1818 (MS 1768-9).

19th century papers include the collections of F.A. White concerning Pére Hyacinthe Loyson, rector of the Gallican Catholic Church (MS 1472-82), of Baroness Burdett-Coutts on the colonial Church, 1842-76 (MS 1374-88), of the Revd. Samuel Augustus Barnett, vicar of St. Jude, Whitechapel (MS 1463-6), of the Revd. Charles Pourtales Golightly (MS 1804-11), of Sir Lewis Dibdin, ecclesiastical lawyer (MS 1586-9), and of Christopher Wordsworth, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of St. Andrews, Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, and John Wordsworth, Bishop of Salisbury (MS 1396-1401, MS 1822-4).

Also included are diaries of Bishop Williams, 1689 (MS 1774), Archbishop Wake, 1705-25 (MS 1770), Sir Walter Charles James, 1st Baron Northbourne, 1851 (MS 1771), William Ewart Gladstone, 1825-96 (MS 1416-55); collections of Francis Eeles (mainly liturgical) (MS 1501-31), and of Claude Jenkins, former Lambeth Librarian and regius professor of ecclesiastical history, Oxford (MS 1590-679); and records of the suffragan Bishops of Fulham, including transcript registers for the Anglican church at Danzig, 1706-1811 (MS 1847-60), of the Church Congresses, 1864-1932 (MS 1781-2), of the Parochial Mission Women's Association, 1862-1916 (MS 1682-93), and of the Wye Book Club, Kent, 1755-1886 (MS 1694-1700); surveys of schools in Salisbury, 1808, and Derbyshire, 1841 (MS 1732, MS 1799); and registers for Anglican churches in Shanghai and Shantung, 1849-1951 (MS 1564-84, MS 1761-4).

The mediaeval manuscripts (MS 1503-14, MS 1681) are included in the World Microfilms Publications [53] Lambeth Palace Library: the Mediaeval Manuscripts.

Further information can be found in:

Bill, E.G.W. A catalogue of manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library, MSS. 1222-1860, (Oxford, 1972). This includes (pp. 1-51) Neil Ker's 'Archbishop Sancroft's rearrangement of the manuscripts of Lambeth Palace'.

Papers of Roundell Palmer, 1st Earl of Selborne, and members of his family, including the Revd. William Palmer, fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, comprising political, family and personal correspondence, 1865-95.

Further information can be found in:  

Bill, E.G.W. Catalogue of the Papers of Roundell Palmer (1812-1895), first Earl of Selborne (1967).

Most of these manuscripts were acquired between 1958 and 1969.

They include a 13th century Syrian new testament (MS 2097), the Ingham roll, c.1366 (MS 2078), letters of Archbishop Arundel, 1413 (MS 1999), a 15th century manuscript of Lionardi de Frescobaldi's journey to the Holy Land in 1384 (MS 1994), the Fairhurst Papers (MS 2000-19) comprising records at one time in Archbishop Laud's study, such as correspondence with continental reformers and English divines, 1529-93, Elizabethan privy council papers, 1589-93, a holograph manuscript of John Bale, bishop of Ossory, 1561, replies to Archbishop Grindal on Puritan prophesyings, 1576-7, papers on the musters of the clergy, 1580-1601, and on the Archpriest controversy, 1602. Further Fairhurst Papers were acquired by the Library in 1988 (MS 3470-3533).

Later manuscripts include papers of Robert Mylne, surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1752-98 (MS 2027), sermons and other writings of the Revd. Thomas Brett, nonjuror (MS 2179-83, MS 2219-21), diaries and memoranda of Beilby Porteus, Bishop of London, 1777-1809 (MS 2098-2106), papers of William Howley, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1766-1848 (MS 2184-2213), letters and sketches by the Revd. S.R. Maitland on his continental tour, 1828 (MS 1943).

Also included is correspondence of Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, 1810-62 (MS 2164), of G.F.P. Blyth, Bishop in Jerusalem, 1887-1914 (MS 2227-37), of Charles Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, and of Christopher Wordsworth, master of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1811-85 (MS 2140-51), of T.A. Lacey, canon of Worcester, 1893-1929 (MS 1974-6), of J.J. Willis, Bishop of Uganda, 1900-55 (MS 2245-2320), of E.G.C.F. Atchley, MRCS, mainly on the liturgy, 1880-1933 (MS 1926-42).

Also included are the medical reports on George III during his bouts of 'insanity', 1811-20 (MS 2107-39), papers of the Cambridge Camden Society, 1839-54 (MS 1977-93), of the Jerusalem and the East Mission Fund, 1844-1936 (MS 2327-40), of the Church of England Temperance Society, 1880-1966 (MS 2030-73), of J. Armitage Robinson, dean of Wells, on the Malines Conversations, 1921-6 (MS 2222-4), and of the Mission to London, 1948-52 (MS 1948-60).

Further information can be found in: Bill, E.G.W. A Catalogue of Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library MSS. 1907-2340, (Oxford,1976).

A micropublication of the Fairhurst Papers (MS 2000-2019) is available from Cengage Learning [64].

With the exception of the Secker Papers (MS 2559-98) and the additional Gladstone Papers (MS 2758-74), all these manuscripts have been acquired since 1968.

These include a late 13th century Greek new testament (MS 2795), records of the divorce of Catherine of Aragon (MS 2341-2), biblical lectures by Theodor Bibliander, 1533-8 (MS 2751-7), papers of Richard Bertie on Marian exiles at Wesel, 1555-6 (MS 2523), an account of the voyages of George, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, early 17th century (MS 2688), a survey of Essex clergy, early 17th century (MS 2442), papers of Laurence Chaderton, master of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, mainly early 17th century (MS 2550), correspondence and diaries of the Revd. John Newton, evangelical divine, 1745-1804 (MS 2935-43, MS 3095-6, MS 3098); correspondence of the latter's biographer, the Revd. William Bull, 1773-1831 (MS 3095-8), of Sir George Lee and Dr. John Lee, ecclesiastical lawyers, 1732-1864 (MS 2873-80); fabric accounts of Robert Mylne, surveyor of St. Paul's Cathedral, 1767-1801 (MS 2552-3); papers concerning Marshal August Marmont during the Napoleonic wars (MS 2687), of the Revd. John Mason Neale, ecclesiologist and hymn-writer, 1838-66 (MS 2677-84, MS 3107-18); additional papers of the Palmer family (MS 2452-2502, MS 2800-57), and of Gladstone (MS 2758-74). Also included are Edward Blore's watercolours and plans for the rebuilding of Lambeth Palace, 1829-33 (MS 2949, MS 3104-5).

For the 20th century, the series includes papers of Athelstan Riley, an Anglican layman active in ecclesiastical affairs (MS 2343-2411), of Edwin James Palmer, Bishop of Bombay (MS 2965-3015), of Arthur Cayley Headlam, Bishop of Gloucester (MS 2615-50); letters from Archbishop Lang to Wilfrid Parker, Bishop of Pretoria (MS 2881-4); papers of Bishop Bell on the community of the Holy Cross, Hayward's Heath, 1929-57 (MS 3066-71); diaries of Alan Campbell Don, chaplain of Archbishop Lang (MS 2861-71), of J.R.H. Moorman, Bishop of Ripon, on the Vatican Council (MS 2793), and of H.H.V. de Candole, suffragan Bishop of Knaresborough (MS 3072-93); and papers of the Archbishops' Committee on Ancient Monuments (Churches), 1913-15 (MS 2786-90), and of various Archbishops' Commissions, 1930-68 (MS 2554-6, MS 2859, MS 2994-6, MS 3060-2).

Records of societies include the Anglo-Continental Society, 1853-1932 (MS 2908-25), the Church of England Temperance Society, 1907-67 (MS 2775-82), the Clergy Orphan Corporation, 1808-1952 (MS 3018-59), and the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, 1857-1948 (MS 2889-2907). Also noteworthy are the foreign registers for the Sudan, Mesopotamia, and Iraq, 19th-20th century (MS 2503-7, MS 2660-3, MS 2669-76, MS 2782-4).

Further information can be found in: Bill, E.G.W. A catalogue of manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library MSS. 2341-3199 (1983).

Papers of the Commission for the Building of Fifty New Churches (the Queen Anne Churches) in and around London, appointed by Act of Parliament in 1711. These include minute books, correspondence, financial records and plans, 1711-59. Of the fifty churches, only ten new churches were built and two existing churches were rebuilt.

A micropublication of the Queen Anne Churches records is available from World Microfilms [53].

Further information is available in:

Bill, E.G.W., The Queen Anne Churches. A catalogue of the papers in Lambeth Palace Library of the Commission for Building Fifty New Churches in London and Westminster, 1711-1759, (London,1979). Includes an introduction by Howard Colvin, pp. ix-xxi.
 
Port, M.H. The Commissions for Building Fifty New Churches. The minute books, 1711-1727. A calendar (London Record Society, vol. 23, 1986). This is available online [68].

Most of these manuscripts have been acquired since 1980, and date mainly from 1660 onwards.

They include the Audley psalter, and a book of hours, 15th century (MS 3285, MS 3338), letters of Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York, 1565-1600 (MS 3408), churchwardens' accounts for Holy Trinity, Minories, 1566-1686 (MS 3390), a household book of Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, 1622 (MS 3361), a funeral account of Archbishop Abbot, 1633 (MS 3153), and exhortation of the Family of Love, c.1650 (MS 3191), an autobiography of Sir George Wheler written in 1701 (MS 3286), a transcript of papers of George Hickes, nonjuror (MS 3171), papers of the Revd. Charles Simeon, evangelical divine, 1824-36 (MS 3170), of Archbishop Manners-Sutton, 1794-1827 (MS 3274), of Michael Solomon Alexander, 1st Bishop in Jerusalem (MS 3393-7); notebooks of Richard Whately, Archbishop of Dublin, 1814-48 (MS 3163-4); and papers of Robert Beloe, lay secretary to successive Archbishops of Canterbury, 1959-69, and of his ancestors, the Bramstons and Hales (MS 3256-73, MS 3391).

The 20th century is represented by numerous churchmen and bishops, including Canon John Collins, president of Christian Action and chairman of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (MS 3287-3319), the Revd. St. John Beverley Groser, master of St. Katharine's Foundation (MS 3428-35), Arthur Cayley Headlam, Bishop of Gloucester, and his niece, P.L. Wingfield (MS 3132-7), Neil Ripley Ker on parish libraries (MS 3221-4), Edmund Robert Morgan, Bishop of Truro (MS 3229-55), Canon Sidney Leslie Ollard (MS 3386-9), Canon A.W. Robinson and J.A. Robinson, Dean of Westminster (MS 3356-8), Robert Wright Stopford, Bishop of London (MS 3421-7), Oliver Stratford Tomkins, Bishop of Bristol (MS 3409-11), and Arthur Foley Winnington-Ingram, Bishop of London (MS 3406). Also included are sermons (15th-20th century) of the Revd. Thomas Bennett, George Hooper, Bishop of Bath and Wells, Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester and others (MS 3167, MS 3169, MS 3190, MS 3219, MS 3236-51, MS 3344-5, MS 3357, MS 3461-2); papers on Lambeth Palace, its heirlooms and paintings (MS 3346-9); fees and precedents for ecclesiastical courts (MS 3403-6, MS 3416); journals and photograph albums of Athelstan Riley on Russia, Kurdistan and Persia (MS 3398-401); constitutions and rules of Anglican religious communities (MS 3180, MS 3213-4); minutes and papers of the Bishops' Board for Service Chaplains, 1945-63 (MS 3183-4), the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, 20th century (MS 3320-37), the Church of England Men's Society, 1899-1986 (MS 3364-84), the Churches' Council on Gambling (MS 3155-8), the Deaconess Institution, Gilmore House, 1887-1970 (MS 3463-6), the Friends of Reunion, 1933-70 (MS 3225-8), the Girls' Diocesan Association, 1910-61 (MS 3140-5), the Sword of the Spirit, 1940-1 (MS 3418), the Paul Report on the deployment of clergy, 1960-4 (MS 3444-58), and reports from overseas dioceses (Africa, Australia, Canada, India, Japan, etc.) to the Missionary Council of the Church Assembly, 1929-55 (MS 3121-8).

Fifteen volumes of papers of the Earls of Shrewsbury, which complement the Shrewsbury Papers (MS 694-710), were purchased from the College of Arms by Lambeth Palace Library in 1983.

Further information is available in:  

Batho, G.R. A Calendar of the Shrewsbury and Talbot Papers in Lambeth Palace Library and the College of Arms. Volume II: Talbot Papers in the College of Arms, (H.M.C. JP7, 1971).

A micropublication of the Talbot Papers is available from Cengage Learning [64].

The Fairhurst Papers acquired in 1988 supplement those purchased in 1963 (MS 2000-19), comprising correspondence originally in Archbishop Laud's study at the time of his imprisonment, including Elizabethan privy council correspondence and papers of Archbishops Grindal and Whitgift on prophesying, a few papers of John Selden who was responsible for rescuing the material from Lambeth and papers of Sir Matthew Hale to whom the Lambeth material descended. 

All these manuscripts were acquired between 1988 and 1991.

They range in date from the Mirror of St. Edmund of Abingdon, Archbishop of Canterbury, 13th century (MS 3597), the book of hours illuminated by Peter Meghen, c.1516 (MS 3561), the register of the Dutch Church in London, 1575-1621 (MS 3586), to a variety of 20th century papers, including those of Albert Augustus David, Bishop of Liverpool (MS 3578-81), of the Revd. St. John Beverley Groser (MS 3562), of Bishop Eric Waldram Kemp on Anglican-Methodist unity, 1956-72 (MS 3555-60), of the Revd. Lancelot Mason, chaplain to Bishop Bell (MS 3589-93), of J.A.T. Robinson, former suffragan Bishop of Woolwich (MS 3537-44), of Eric Treacy, Bishop of Wakefield (MS 3566-75), of the Revd. Reginald Somerset Ward (MS 3587, MS 3584), and of the Revd. N.P. Williams, 1883-1943 (MS 3545-54).

Manuscripts acquired and catalogued since 1991 including: a 13th century book of hours (MS 3599), a Syon Abbey prayerbook and requiem office book, late mediaeval (MS 3600, MS 3774), the surrender deeds for Hitchin priory, 1538 (MS 4202), theological and devotional works of Bishop Lancelot Andrewes, including Preces privatae (1555-1625) (MS 3707-8), the act book of the Archbishop's Court of Audience, 1615-16 (MS 3711), prayer book of Sir Edward Hoby, early 17th century (MS 3998), letters of Bishop William Lloyd, especially to Archbishop Sancroft (MS 3694-3700), further papers of the Revd. John Newton and the Revd William Bull, 1750-1804 (MS 3970-5), and papers of the Revd. Charles Wellington Furse, 1829-98 (MS 4096-4133).

More recent material includes further diaries of Bishop Moorman, 1921-88 (MS 3616-76), letters of Louise Creighton, wife of Mandell Creighton, Bishop of London, 1872-1927 (MS 3677-80), notes of Archbishop Benson and Bishop Wordsworth on the trial of Bishop King, 1888-9 (MS 3764-70), a minute book on continental chaplaincies, 1872-1900 (MS 3981); papers of Brother Edward of the Village Evangelists movement (MS 3828-60), of the Revd. St. John Beverley Groser (MS 3771-3), of the Revd. H.R.L. (Dick) Sheppard, 1892-1937 (MS 3741-50), of Reginald Somerset Ward (MS 4134-83), and of Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark, 1913-89 (MS 4187-91).

The late 19th and 20th century collections of various societies include records of the Band of Hope, 1855-1990 (MS 3712-40), Church Moral Aid Association, 1852-92 (MS 3681-3706), of the Churches Council on Alcohol and Drugs, formerly the Temperance Council of the Christian Churches (MS 3751-63), of the Church Penitentiary Association, 1852-1951 (MS 3681-3706), of the Industrial Christian Fellowship, formerly the Navvy Mission Society (MS 4003-95), of the Church of England Council for Social Aid (MS 3775-8), of the Council for Promoting Catholic Unity (MS 3995).

Records of Anglican communities include those of the Community of the Holy Rood, 1869-1992 (MS 3917-69), and of the Order of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, 1904-90 (MS 3862-93). Also included are a drawing by Jan Griffier of Lambeth Palace (MS 4196), two sketches by A.W.N. Pugin of the palace and deanery at Wells, 1832 (MS 4201), sketches and photograph album of Archbishop Benson (MS 3977, MS 4184, MS 4199), and photographic collections of Richard and Charles Barrow Keene and James Willoughby Harrison (MS 3601-15).

Correspondence and sermons of Revd. Isaac Williams, 1802-1865, a leading Tractarian.

Correspondence and diaries of the Rt Revd George Bell (1883-1958), successively student of Christ Church, chaplain to Archbishop Randall Davidson, Dean of Canterbury, and from 1929 Bishop of Chichester.

This extensive collection includes material on the German churches before and after the Second World War, the allies' war policy, relief work among refugees, the atomic bomb, the ecumenical movement and Churches overseas, South Africa, religious drama and art, liturgy, and church and state relations.

William John Birkbeck (1859-1916) was a theologian and liturgical scholar concerned with relations between the Church of England and the Russian Orthodox Church. He travelled extensively through Russia exploring its history and culture. In 1895 he was involved in Viscount Halifax's ecumenical mission to Rome. In the same year, he published Russia and the English Church, consisting of the correspondence between the Rev. William Palmer, an Anglican divine, and Alexis Stepanovich Khomyakov, a Russian layman and theologian.

The collection comprises family papers and correspondence, diaries, study and lecture notes and covers Birkbeck's work on Church history, theology and liturgy, his involvement in the Anglo-Catholic movement and ecumenism.

The Christian Faith Society originated in 1691 in a bequest of Robert Boyle for advancing religion among infidels, and was renamed in 1794 the Society for the Conversion and Religious Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands and in 1836 the Society for Advancing the Christian Faith in the British West-India Islands.

The papers comprise minutes, correspondence and accounts, 1642-1956.

A micropublication of the Christian Faith Society is available from World Microfilms [53]

The Church Society was founded in 1950 by the merger of the Church Association (f.1865) and the National Protestant League (f.1906), which was itself an amalgamation of the National Protestant Church Union (f.1893) and the Church of England League (f.1904), formerly the Ladies League (f.1899).

The collection comprises minutes of the Church Association and its committees from 1867, and the National Protestant Church League, 1919-49.

The English Church Union was founded in 1860 by the merger of the Church of England Protection Society (f.1859) with a number of local church societies with the similar object of defending and propagating high church principles. In 1934 the ECU united with the Anglo-Catholic Congress to form the Church Union.

The collection comprises minutes of the ECU and CU, Anglo-Catholic Congresses, Bristol Church Union, and parochial returns on reservation, 1954.

Records of ecclesiastical administration during the Commonwealth period, including parochial surveys, and surveys of the former episcopal and capitular estates, records of appointment of clergy and augmentation of benefices. Originally numbered in the manuscript sequence as 902-22, 944-50, 966-1021, these were renumbered in the 1960s as a separate collection.

A micropublication of the Commonwealth Records is available from World Microfilms [53]

Further information is available in:

Houston, J. Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Records of the Commonwealth 1643-1660 in the Lambeth Palace Library (1968).

Doctors' Commons, the association or college of ecclesiastical lawyers founded in 1511 and situated in Knightrider Street, London, was dissolved following the Court of Probate Act, 1857.

Its records were dispersed, but most of those that survive are in the Library. These comprise the register, 1511-1855, a 19th century minute book, and financial and estate papers.  For further details and a calendar of the register of Doctors' Commons (DC 1), see G.D. Squibb, Doctors' Commons. A history of the College of advocates and doctors of law.[R OC341.S7] (1977).

Correspondence of Canon J.A. Douglas, vicar of St. Luke, Camberwell, and from 1933 Hon. General Secretary of the Church of England Council on Foreign Relations, concerning relations between the Church of England and the Eastern Orthodox Churches during the first half of the 20th century.

The records of the Community of St Andrew cover its 19th- and 20th-century history and include minutes, correspondence, photographs and other material. The Library also holds printed material relating to the community. The collection documents the wider history of the deaconess movement and the role of women in the church as well as the community's own work.

Some documents from the archive were published in Henrietta Blackmore, The Beginning of Women’s Ministry: The Revival of the Deaconess in the 19th Century Church of England (2007).

Gerald Alexander Ellison (1910-1992) was Bishop of London and a highly respected and influential figure in the Church of England. He was the spokesman for all church legislative matters in the House of Lords and developed the area system in London.

The collection includes official and personal papers from his time as Bishop of Chester (1955-1976), Bishop of London (1973-1981) and his service in the House of Lords. Official papers cover the wide range of his activities and include correspondence, administrative files, papers on foreign visits and official diaries. Personal papers include family and private correspondence, personal diaries, papers relating to his education and photographs.

The Library holds the official papers of several Bishops of London, known as the Fulham Papers as they were were transferred from Fulham Palace, the former Bishops' residence.

The majority of the collection dates from the 18th-19th centuries and includes correspondence on the administration of the diocese of London, and on the churches, particularly in America and the West Indies, which came under the bishop's jurisdiction at the time.

It also includes a series of visitation returns, 1763-1900 [73], the earlier volumes being at London Metropolitan Archives [74] alongside other records of the diocese (ref: DL).

A micropublication of the colonial sections of the papers is available in several American libraries and may also be purchased from World Microfilms Limited [53], who also publish micropublications of the letterbooks of Bishop Blomfield and the London visitation returns 1763-1815.

For the diocese of London see also the Building on History project [75].

Extent of the Diocese of London

The boundaries of the diocese of London were changed a number of times during the 19th century. Until 1845, the diocese composed most of the parishes in Middesex, the city of London parishes (excluding the thirteen parishes in the peculiar of the Arches), a substantial number of parishes in Hertfordshire, and the four parishes of Aston Abbots, Grandborough, Little Horwood, and Winslow in Buckinghamshire.

The abolition of the exempt jurisdictions in 1845 brought into the diocese of London the parishes in the city of London and some parishes in Middlesex and Surrey which were formerly peculiars of the archbishop. At the same time the diocese gained various Kent parishes just south of the Thames (Charlton, Deptford, Eltham, Greenwich, Lee, Lewisham, Plumstead, and Woolwich) and retained nine Essex parishes just north of the river (Barking, Chingford, East and West Ham, Little Ilford, Low Leyton, Wanthamstow, Wanstead, and Woodford).

The remainder of Essex was temporarily transferred to the see of Rochester. London also lost its parishes in Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire.  Under the London Diocese Act of 1863 and the Diocese of St. Albans Act of 1875, provisions were made for the future removal of the Essex, Kent and Surrey parishes from the diocese of London. In 1877 the diocese of London was confined to the county of Middlesex, including the cities of London and Middlesex.

The records of the Incorporated Church Building Society (ICBS) comprise the minute books and some 16,000 files relating to applications for grants for the building and restoration of churches thoughout England and Wales, from the foundation of the Society in 1818 until 1982. Applications were made on a standard form which included data on the population and character of the parish, as well as information on the church building.

Catalogue data includes information on the churches, reasons for the grants, and the names of surveyors, architects or other professionals responsible for the buildings, and indicates the existence of plans and photographs. For further information on the ICBS archive and how to use it, click the 'Search Collections' link on the left hand menu.

Also of use is "List of I.C.B.S. grants, 1818-1927" (from The Incorporated Church Building Society annual report for ... 1927).

Correspondence and papers of the Revd. John Keble and various relatives, including Thomas Keble (1793-1875), vicar of Bisley.

Copy of 48 sermons preached between 1672 and 1689. They are attributed to John Kettlewell (1653-1695), but the authorship is uncertain.

This collection is on deposit and the Library is unable to provide copies in any form. 

A miscellaneous collection of material on the history of the Library, including obsolete catalogues, ranging from the earliest, which provides a catalogue of the books and manuscripts of the Library's founder, Archbishop Bancroft, in 1612 and includes an account of the Library's foundation (F1), to those of previous Librarians (Paul Colomiès, David Wilkins, A.C. Ducarel, S.R. Maitland and S.W. Kershaw).

Also included are letter-books of Claude Jenkins, Lambeth Librarian, correspondence, mainly 20th century, a few visitors' books, and annual reports.

See also the source guides to Library Records [76].

The Lord Wharton Charity was founded in 1692 by Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton, for the purchase of bibles, catechisms and other books for poor children in Buckinghamshire, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Yorkshire.  The collection includes accounts, minutes and papers, mainly 19th-20th century.

The Rt Rev. Hugh Montefiore was born into a prominent Jewish family. He converted to Anglican Christianity whilst at school and became Bishop of Kingston Upon Thames (1970-1978) and Bishop of Birmingham (1978-1987). He wrote many books and was a sometimes controversial, but influential figure.  

This collection comprises official papers (records spanning Bishop Montefiore's career in the Church of England and including correspondence, sermons and records of Montefiore's involvement with charities and social activism) and personal and family papers (personal papers of the Bishop and his wife, including records of Montefiore's service in the armed forces during the Second World War, diaries, passports, photographs, and research compiled by Montefiore's biographer John Peart Binns).

Records created by the headquarters of the Mothers' Union (MU), Mary Sumner House, Westminster. Founded to promote the sanctity of marriage and Christian family life, the MU was primarily interested in the morality of society, and its activity ranged from petitioning parliament to running family fun days. By the early 20^th century, the MU had established itself in dioceses overseas, undertaking a mix of missionary and development work.

The archive comprises minutes, correspondence, accounts, pamphlets, architectural plans, photographs and slides. The majority of the archive dates from the 1890s onwards, as it was not until then that the Mothers' Union established a centralised structure. The papers also contain a few series of documents originating from members who, although not always based at Mary Sumner House, played important roles within the organisation.

For a summary guide to badges within the MU archive, please click the link on the right hand side. 

Correspondence and papers of the Royal Commission on Ecclesiastical Discipline, which was appointed in 1904 and reported in 1906: Report of the Royal Commission on Discipline, together with Minutes of evidence taken before the Royal Commission.

The papers comprise 25 volumes, including minute books, surveys of churches where ritualist practices had been introduced, 1901-5, and newspaper cuttings, 1904-6.

Correspondence and papers of SPG, comprising the papers of John Chamberlayne, first secretary of SPG, 1702-11, later given to the Archbishop of Canterbury, minutes, 1701-50, financial records, 1702-96, and some late 18th century correspondence of the Archbishops of Canterbury relating to the church overseas and the establishment of episcopacy in America.

For other correspondence, 1702-14, see the Tenison volume in Archbishops Papers and for minutes of SPG, 1758-66, see MS 1124. within the manuscripts series.

Micropublication of the SPG Papers is available in a number of American Libraries and may be purchased from World Microfilms Limited [53]

Further information is available in:

Manross, W.W. S.P.G. Papers in the Lambeth Palace Library. Calendar and Indexes, (Oxford, 1974).

The archives of SPG records are held at the Bodleian Library [79]. These include series A, B and C.

The Society was instituted in 1788 for the relief of country clergy, 'the tenor of whose preaching is according to the doctrinal articles of the Church of England'. The records comprise minute books and registers, 1788-1864.

The SSF is an international Franciscan religious order. It was formed in the 1930s by uniting groups in the Franciscan tradition including the Brotherhood of St Francis of Assisi. The Society originated in the work of the Reverend Douglas Downes, during the depression following the First World War. Brother Douglas and his associates travelled the roads, sharing the life of itinerant men and boys seeking work. In 1921, a landowner offered a Dorset farm as a base for the work, which became Hilfield Friary. Father Algy Robertson was also an important figure in the formation of the Society.

There are three different orders within the Society: the First Order of brothers and sisters (The Society of St Francis and The Community of St Francis respectively), the Second Order of sisters (The Community of St Clare) and the Third Order of lay men and women.

The SSF collection covers the wide range of activities of the First Order of brothers, including constitution and admission documentation, communication and correspondence between UK and overseas-based missions, personal papers of the brothers and minutes of council and chapter meetings. The collection also includes items from the Brotherhood of the Love of Christ, which joined the Society in 1937 and The Society of the Servants of Christ, a Christian ashram founded in India.

Founded in Oxford in 1866, the Society of Saint John the Evangelist (SSJE) became the first male Anglican religious order of men to from since the Reformation. Father Founder, Richard Meux Benson, took vows of poverty, obedience and celibacy and, along with Simeon Wilberforce O’Neill and Charles Chapman Grafton, began a Society which would continue in Britain for almost 150 years.

Missionary work, both at home and overseas, was a fundamental aim of the Society and by the turn of the 20th century missions had been established in Bombay and Poona in India and Cape Town in South Africa. Work would also begin in America in 1870, and this would be followed in 1928 with a house opening in Ontario, Canada. At home, a church, mission house and schools were built in the Cowley district of Oxford, and in 1905 a purpose-built London home for the Society was established at Great College Street, Westminster. The work of the members of the Society would provide a template for those societies formed latterly, and the legacy of SSJE is clear, with churches and schools still fulfilling the needs of communities across three continents.

In 2011 the British Chapter of the Society came to an end, though an American Chapter based in Cambridge, Massachusetts still thrives.

The SSJE collection, given to Lambeth Palace Library in 2012, provides a record of all the activities of the Fathers, including missionary work, conducting retreats and the delivering sermons and addresses. The overseas missionary work is particularly well recorded within the Fathers personal papers, with large quantities of letters from India and South Africa surviving to provide a vivid recollection of the early days of the Society in what were often harsh, uncompromising conditions. Also included are copies of the Rule and Statues by which the Fathers lived their lives, a range of minute books documenting the administration of the Society, a large number of photographs which feature various Fathers, the Society’s properties at home and abroad, the types of missionary work undertaken by the Fathers, and records which detail the establishing of the Society’s London House.

These papers are stored at the Church of England Record Centre [80].

Correspondence, travel diaries, photographs and organisation files relating to the life and work of John Stott (1921-2011), the rector of All Souls, Langham Place (1950-1975), Chaplain to the Queen (1959-1991), and prominent evangelical leader. Stott was also the author of around fifty books, including ‘Issues Facing Christians Today’ and the series entitled ‘The Bible Speaks Today’, primarily written at his rural retreat on the Pembrokeshire coast.

This collection includes material relating to key evangelical conferences, such as the 1974 International Congress of World Evangelism at Lausanne, at which Stott was the Chair of the Drafting Committee of the Lausanne Covenant; as well as the minutes and reports from organisations which John Stott was instrumental in founding, such as Langham Partnership International, The London Institute of Contemporary Christianity, the Church of England Evangelical Council, the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion and the Eclectics Society.

The Third Order was originally formed in 1930 as the English branch of the Third Order of the Christa Seva Sangha (CSS), a Christian ashram in India, and was under the guidance of Father Algy of the Brotherhood of the Love of Christ at St. Ives and its co-founder Dorothy L. Swayne. The society was composed of priests and laity who wished to live under a simple rule of religious life following the Evangelical Counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience. Many of its members however were not particularly connected with the Franciscan mission in India and in 1930 it was suggested by Br. Douglas Downes that the English Third Order be united with other tertiary groups within the society.

This led to the creation of the Fellowship of the Way in 1931 (also known as the Fellowship of St. Francis), which provided a rule of daily prayer and communion for members but did not require members to take vows. The following years saw a debate between tertiaries seeking a simpler rule of life and those wanting a fully formed Third Order with a novitiate and professed members under vows. In 1933 it was decided that the CSS tertiaries in Britain should become affiliated with other Third Order communities in England. The Fellowship of the Way was dissolved and replaced with the council of the Society of Saint Francis. In 1937, with the formation of the First Order of the Society of Saint Francis, it was decided that the affiliated tertiary communities should become the Third Order of the newly unified Society of Saint Francis.

The collection includes communications and correspondence with members of the order around the world, rules, statues, minutes and reports of governing bodies and schedules of events.

**E1440.P2 The Whole Psalter Translated into English Metre. Printed by John Daye 1567. Translated by Archbishop Matthew Parker, bound for Archbishop Parker & given by Margaret Parker to the Countess of Shrewsbury (Bess of Hardwick). 195 x 142mm

Click on the image (right) to enlarge. 

This fine volume, bound by Parker's own binder has recently been conserved in the Library's conservation studio. Both boards were almost loose of the text block. The pages were cleaned, the spine rebacked in archival calf and the original spine repositioned on top of the new. The corners were repaired with toned Japanese paper. The inner joints strengthened with aero linen and marbled Japanese paper.

The Lambeth Palace Library collections (excluding Sion College collections) contain some 120,000 books, 40,000 pamphlets, and over 100 current periodicals relating in the main, but not exclusively, to the history of the Church of England and its relations with other Churches both in Great Britain and overseas. 

The core of the collection of early printed books was bequeathed by the Library's founder, Archbishop Bancroft, in 1610 and includes books belonging to some of his predecessors, namely Cranmer, Grindal and Whitgift. 

The collections have been enlarged by gifts from successive archbishops, especially Abbot, Sheldon, Tenison, Secker, and Davidson, by the acquisition of the libraries of the Dutch Church and Church House, and by a judicious policy of purchase by recent librarians.  Many of the books and pamphlets relate to or amplify the archives and manuscripts.

The catalogue of printed books held by the Library is complete and available online, and can be accessed through the ‘Search Collections' section of the website.

Information about the collections can also be found online via the COPAC [86] academic and national library catalogue, the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC) [87] and the Incunabula Short Title Catalogue (ISTC) [88] catalogue.

Some closed sequences of Lambeth Palace Library's periodicals are stored at the Church of England Record Centre.  They will be available for use in the Record Centre's Reading Room, not at Lambeth Palace Library. 

If you wish to use periodicals stored at the Record Centre, please contact the Record Centre to request them at least five working days in advance, as the Reading Room is open by appointment only.

Periodicals stored at the Record Centre are shown in the online printed books catalogue with a classmark of the form "CERC Box", and a list of the periodicals affected is available from the Collections Librarian.

Lambeth Palace Library's function as a library of printed books, serving not only the Archbishop but also the Church and nation, dates from its foundation in 1610.  It now serves as the principal library for the history of the Church of England, and continues to collect current scholarship in the following categories:

(a) Material relating to the history and administration of the Church of England (pre- and post-Reformation), or providing necessary background sources for research in this field.

(b) Material supporting, or stemming from, the study of the historic collection of archives, manuscripts and early printed books in the care of the Library.

Printed Books

More than 12,000 records are now searchable on the Library's online printed books catalogue [92]. These include :

• Incunabula
• Goode Pamphlets
• Gibson Pamphlets
• Scott Tracts and Pamphlets

The remaining 50,000 items are searchable in a card catalogue in the Library. Please contact us  [93]for further advice.

Records of items published after 1850 are available through the catalogue of Kings College London [94].

Manuscripts 

Records of manuscripts transferred from Sion College can be consulted on our archives and manuscripts catalogue [95].

Microfiche

A few items from the Sion College collection published on microfiche by IDC have recently been acquired. Please click on the link on the right hand side of this page to consult a handlist.

The manuscripts total over 300 volumes, from the 11th to the 20th century. They are arranged in series by language, English, French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Oriental. The medieval manuscripts include a 13th century psalter belonging to Archbishop Meopham, a 15th century York breviary, and Wycliffite New and Old Testaments. Later material includes the minutes of the Presbyterian Provincial Assembly of London, 1647-60, an augmentation order book of the Committee for the Reformation of the Universities, 1650-2, and works of the mathematician Nathaniel Torporley (d. 1632).

A project to re-catalogue the English, French and Latin manuscripts took place in 2013-14 and the descriptions are available in the online archive catalogue [99]. For more information on cataloguing of the Greek manuscripts, see the Royal Holloway website [100].

Previous finding aids included: 

C.J. Kitching, 'Summary list of the Latin and English manuscripts in Sion College Library London' (typescript, Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts, 1990) 
[Compiled before the manuscripts were transferred to Lambeth Palace Library. Does not include manuscripts in languages other than Latin and English.] 

Ker, N.R. Medieval manuscripts in British Libraries vol.1: London, (Oxford, 1969: pp. 263-91).
Includes manuscripts sold by the College in 1977 - see below.

Pickering, O.S. & O'Mara, V.M. The Index of Middle English Prose: handlist 13.  Manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library including those formerly in Sion College Library (Cambridge, 1999).

The following manuscripts did not come to Lambeth Palace Library when the collection was transferred : 
English MSS
E 15 (Thomas Bray) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 76)
E 21 (Joye's school minute book) - at Guildhall Library c.1953
E 23 (Chaucer) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 73)
E 41 (Bennet & Clements booksellers memorandum book) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 75)
E 76 (Langland Piers Plowman) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 74)
Latin MSS
L8 (Syon Abbey processional) - missing in 1932.  Now Syon Abbey, South Brent, Devon: MS 1
L9 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 71)
L21 (Suetonius) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 70)
L28 (Hugo Folieto & the Bestiary of Humphrey Duke of Gloucester) sold at Sotheby's 13/6/1977 (lot 72) - now Getty Museum
L34 (Merchant Taylor's School admissions register 1644-1662) - at Merchant Taylor's since 1930

Of the 35,000 printed books, many complement the Lambeth collections.  Of the 57 incunabula, 51 are editions previously lacking at Lambeth.  There are some 1,600 STC and 4,000 Wing books.  Significant collections were donated or bequeathed to Sion College by Walter Travers, the puritan opponent of Richard Hooker; Henry Compton, bishop of London; John Lawson, M.D., brother-in-law of Archbishop Tenison; Thomas James (c.1650-1711), a London bookseller and mathematical printer to the King; and Richard Chiswell, bookseller in St. Paul's Churchyard, specialising in the works of Anglican divines. Other collections of note include the Jesuit Library seized at the time of the Popish Plot and transferred to Sion College in 1679, some 500 books from the Library of Archbishop Tenison, and the Port Royal Library, collected in the first half of the 19th century.

The extensive pamphlet collection includes some 3,700 items belonging to Edmund Gibson, bishop of London (1669-1748), 5,800 to John Russell, headmaster of the Charterhouse, and rector of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate (1787-1863), 1,600 to William Goode, dean of Ripon (1801-68), and 7,100 to William Scott, vicar of St. Olave, Jewry, London, (1801-68).