PROTESTANT DISSENTING DEPUTIES

Identity Statement

Reference code(s)	: GB 0074 CLC/181
Held at	: London Metropolitan Archives   Click here to find out how to view this collection at https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma ›
Full title	: PROTESTANT DISSENTING DEPUTIES
Date(s)	: 1732-1909
Level of description	: Collection
Extent	: 21 production units.
Name of creator(s)	: Protestant Dissenting Deputies

Context

Administrative/Biographical history:

The Deputies were the elected representatives of every congregation of the Presbyterian, Independent and Baptist denominations of Protestant Dissenters, within a ten mile radius of London. They evolved as a formal body to press for the repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts and "to take care of the civil affairs of Dissenters".

The Deputies appear to have originated at a general meeting of Protestant Dissenters held on 9 November 1732 at which a committee was appointed to consider an appeal to Parliament for the repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts. A meeting on 29 November 1732 recommended that every congregation of the three denominations appoint two deputies to form an assembly, and in January 1736 it was proposed that the deputies should be elected annually. This resolution became fully effective in January 1737, when 21 of these elected representatives were chosen to form a committee to deal with the main business of the year.

Content

Scope and content/abstract:

Records of the Protestant Dissenting Deputies, comprising three series of committee minute books and one secretary's letter book.

Access & Use

Language/scripts of material:
English

System of arrangement:

MS 03083-84, 86: Minutes; MS 03085: Letter book.

Conditions governing access:

Available for general access.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to this collection rests with the depositor.

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

Archival Information

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

The records were deposited by the Deputies of the Protestant Dissenter in Guildhall Library in 1933. They were catalogued by a member of Guildhall Library staff.

Allied Materials

Related material:

Publication note:

A complete history of the Deputies can be found in B.L. Manning, The Protestant Dissenting Deputies, edited by O. Greenwood (1952); however the draft minutes mentioned on p.8 cannot be traced at Guildhall Library.

Description Notes

Archivist's note:

Rules or conventions:
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions:
August to October 2010.