Manuscripts

– A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z –

The following list of collections provides more detail on some of the material collected by the Library. This section on the manuscripts series covers a broad range of material accumulated by Archbishops of Canterbury and their Library. For summary information on further collections, please see the A-Z list, and for fuller details of Library holdings search the online archives catalogue.

9th-18th Century Manuscripts (MS 1-1221)


These 1200 manuscripts include most of the medieval 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).

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

For an additional guide to manuscripts of Canterbury provenance, please see the attachment below:

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Bacon Papers (MS 647-662)


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. Further information on the papers can be found in the online catalogue descriptions, based on:

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

Access to the Bacon papers is also available by subscription from Adam Matthew Digital

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Carew Papers (MS 596-638)


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. Further information on the papers can be found in the online catalogue descriptions, based on:

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

See also:
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.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Fairhurst Papers (MS 3470-3533)


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. 

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Gibson Papers (MS 929-942)


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 manuscripts is available from Cengage Learning.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Greek Manuscripts


The collection consists of fifty-five Greek manuscripts acquired by the Library since its founding in 1610, including those received from Sion College in 1996. The manuscripts 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 (MS 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 manuscripts to the Library on his death in 1817 (MS 1223-1224, 1259).

The Library is grateful to The A. G. Leventis Foundation 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. The catalogue is available online:
Wright, Christopher, Maria Argyrou and Charalambos Dendrinos. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Greek Manuscript Collection of Lambeth Palace Library (2016).

Other 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).


Selected images from the collection are available here.

MS 1222-1860


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 1590-1679); 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 medieval manuscripts (MS 1503-14, MS 1681) are included in the World Microfilms Publications Lambeth Palace Library: the Mediaeval Manuscripts.

Further information can be found in the online catalogue descriptions, based on:
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’.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

MS 1907-2340


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), and 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), and 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 the online catalogue descriptions, based on: 
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.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

MS 2341-3119


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 the online catalogue descriptions, based on:
Bill, E.G.W. A catalogue of manuscripts in Lambeth Palace Library MSS. 2341-3199 (1983).

Selected images from the collection are available here.

MS 3120-3469


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).

Selected images from the collection are available here.

MS 3534-3598


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).

Selected images from the collection are available here.

MS 3599 onwards


Manuscripts acquired and catalogued since 1991 including: a 13th century book of hours (MS 3599), a Syon Abbey prayerbook and requiem office book, late medieval (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), papers of the Revd. Charles Wellington Furse, 1829-98 (MS 4096-4133), and correspondence and sermons of the Revd. Isaac Williams, 1802-65, a leading Tractarian (MS 4473-79).

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).

The manuscript series continues to accrue with new purchases and other additions to the collection.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Musical and Liturgical Manuscripts


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, of use.
 
Selected images from the collection are available here.

Notitia Parochialis (MS 960-965)


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’.

Secker Papers (MS 1118-1128, MS 1130, MS 1134)


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 MicrofilmsLambeth Palace Library. Miscellaneous American Material 16th-18th Centuries.  

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Selborne Papers (MS 1861-1906)


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 the online catalogue descriptions, based on: 
Bill, E.G.W. Catalogue of the Papers of Roundell Palmer (1812-1895), first Earl of Selborne (1967).

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Shrewsbury Papers (MS 694-710)


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. Further information on the papers can be found in the online catalogue descriptions, based on:
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).

Access to the Shrewsbury papers is also available by subscription from Adam Matthew Digital

Selected images from the collection are available here.

Talbot Papers (MS 3192-3206)


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 the online catalogue descriptions, based on: 
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

Access to the Talbot papers is also available by subscription from Adam Matthew Digital.

Selected images from the collection are available here.

The Queen Anne Churches (MS 2690-2750)


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.

Further information is available in the online catalogue descriptions, based on:
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.

See also:
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.

Selected images from the collection are available here.