Research
An important part of the work of the Centre is to encourage postdoctoral and doctoral students to research into the Library's unique collections of books and manuscripts. It is a policy of the Centre to seek funding for postdoctoral and doctoral students attached to the Centre and the School of English and Drama at Queen Mary wherever possible.
The manuscript collections include the original minutes of the Westminster Assembly (1643-1652); the papers and correspondence of Richard Baxter (1615-91); Roger Morrice's historical manuscripts, including the Entring Book, the most important unpublished record of British political and religious history of the second half of the seventeenth century; sources for the history of eighteenth-century dissent, such as the Evans list of Dissenting congregations in England and Wales, 1715-1729, and the Thompson lists for 1772-3; and the early minute books of the General Body of Protestant Dissenting Ministers of the Three Denominations, as well as the minutes of the Presbyterian Fund and the Congregational Fund which are on deposit.
Among the many substantial collections of eighteenth-century letters are those of Philip Doddridge, his family and friends, and of Joseph Priestley, Theophilus Lindsey, Francis Blackburne, Thomas Belsham, and others associated with them. There are also papers and correspondence associated with Philip and Matthew Henry and with Isaac Watts. There is much material relating to the three-hundred year history of the dissenting academies and their successors, and the printed collections include many of their surviving libraries. The extensive archive of Henry Crabb Robinson, containing his diary (1811-1867), reminiscences, correspondence and other papers, is of great literary significance for students of Romantic poetry.
The books and manuscripts donated by the Victorian Methodist Christopher Walton include the papers of the eighteenth-century mystic William Law and the best printed collection of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mysticism in Britain. Dr Williams's Library also houses and manages the manuscripts and printed collections of the Congregational Library. Though some of the material mentioned has been researched and edited by scholars, much remains unstudied.
