IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): ACC/2854
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: CLAPHAM CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH
Date(s): 1798-1988
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 2.86 linear metres
Name of creator(s): Congregational Church of England and Wales
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
The Independent Congregation at Clapham was founded in 1645. The earliest records relating to the congregation are licences granted in 1672 for individuals to use their houses for meetings (these licences are held at the National Archives).
Among the ministers of the congregation was Philip Furneaux, who was a champion of religious liberty. During his ministry (1754-1778), a new Church was built in Clapham Old Town in 1762. Previously the congregation had met in a wooden building and later a brick structure in Nag's Head Lane, later North Street, Clapham. A new church was built in 1852 at a cost of £11,000. Following considerable damage during the Second World War another Church building was constructed in 1957.
The most famous minister of the congregation was Reverend Dr James Guinness Rogers (1822-1911) who was a leading figure in nonconformist politics during the late nineteenth century. He was a prolific writer: his works included "Sermons on the Life of Christ" and "The Gospel in the Epistles". A friend of Gladstone (who opened his 1892 election campaign from Rogers' house), he assisted in the foundation of the Liberation Society (formerly the British Anti-State-Church Association). His ideas for a greater nonconformist voice, spanning the denominations, came to fruition in the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches (later the Free Church Federal Council). In a personal capacity he was Chairman of the Congregational Union of England and Wales in 1874 and was a founder member of the Council of King Edward's Hospital Fund for London. He was minister at Clapham between 1865 and 1900.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Clapham Congregational Church, 1798-1988, including Trustees papers; Deacons' Meeting minutes; Church Meeting minutes; papers of other Committees including Building Maintenance Committee, Missionary Committee and Magazine Committee; membership registers; correspondence relating to staffing; service sheets; financial accounts; papers relating to the Church buildings and property, including plans; papers relating to damage incurred during the Second World War; general correspondence; papers relating to Church societies including the Sunday School, the Ladies' Working Missionary Society, the Vestry Book Society and the War Relief Sewing Society (First World War); printed material including circulars; news cuttings and photographs including Dr James Guinness Rogers.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
In sections according to catalogue.
Conditions governing access:
These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright: Depositor
Physical characteristics:
Fit
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Acc/2854
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
See also LMA/4066/C for records of Committee Meetings (1821 - 1853). A register of births and baptisms from Clapham Congregational Church 1808-1837 is held at the National Archives (ref RG4/3100).
Publication note:
The Story of Congregationalism in Surrey, E.E. Cleal (1908) (Ref: 54.1 CLE).
J. Guinness Rogers: an autobiography, J. G. Rogers (1903).
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Date(s) of descriptions: January to March 2009