Records of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel: Papers at Lambeth Library - Collection 154

[Note: The BGC Archives does not have the original documents of this collection. What it does have is a microfilm edition of the papers, which it purchased from a publisher, as did many other archives and libraries.]

[Note: What follows is a description of the documents in this collection which are available for use at BGC Archives in Wheaton, Illinois, USA. The actual documents are not, in most cases, available online, only this description of them. Nor are they available for sale or rent.]

Table of Contents

Brief Description of This Collection

Title Page and Restrictions

Historical Background of/Biography of

An Essay on the Contents of the Collection (Scope and Content)

Lists of Microfilm in This Collection (Location Records)


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Collection 154
[March 12, 2001]
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; 1701-1965
Papers at Lambeth Library; 1679 - ca. 1790; n.d.
17 Reels of Microfilm

Restrictions

Copyright on this collection is held by the Lambeth Palace Library. Materials may not be duplicated other than for personal use.

Historical Background

From the beginning of English colonization, a need for spiritual guidance for colonists and missionary work among natives was felt by Church leaders, but performance fell short of the hazily perceived goal. In 1675 an official inquiry was gotten underway by the Church of England, but it was not until 1698 that the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge was formed, and even then, its scope was limited. In 1701, a special committee was appointed by the Lower House of the Convocation of the Province of Canterbury to inquire into "ways and means for Promoting Christian King William III, who returned a charter founding the Society for the achievements in its far-flung mission empire in North-Central-South America, the West Indies, Africa, Australia, Asia, India, China, Japan, Korea, and Europe, through the close of the nineteenth century can be found in The Encyclopedia of Missions (New York: Funk and Wagnall's, 1904)--Center Library, Ref BV 2040 E53.

In 1965 the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel merged with the Universities' Mission to Central Africa to form the United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. In the last years of its operation as an independent entity, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel worked with an annual budget of over two million dollars.

Scope and Content

The collection consists of about two thousand five hundred letters and eight volumes of minutes covering the formative years of the Society, 1701-1750. Later papers document the establishment of the American episcopate after the Revolution. The correspondence is primarily with clergy sent to America, but also concerns Eurasia, especially China and India.

A published guide to this collection can be found in the Archive Reading Room bibliography, Foreign Collections shelf: William Wilson Manross's S.P.G. Papers in the Lambeth Palace Library: Calendar and Indexes (Oxford, 1974). As the title suggests, it contains a detailed calendar and two indexes, one to names and topics appearing in the calendar and the other to names appearing in the documents themselves.

Provenance

This microfilm was purchased by the Center from World Microfilms Publications, London.

No Accession #
November 12, 1980
Galen Wilson
S. Kouns

LOCATION RECORD
No Accession #
Type of Material: Microfilm

The following items are located in the CENTER LIBRARY MICROFILM ROOM:

All reels are 35mm, positive copy.

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Last Revised: 3/15/01
Expiration: indefinite