About the Collection
The British Methodist Documents and Images collection comprises over two hundred eighteenth and nineteenth century letters, documents, and images including documents collected by Alexander Meyrick Broadley, the manuscripts of Rev. L. H. Wellesley Wesley, letters written by Thomas Coke, and letters written by the family of British Anglican clergyman Rev. John Barker.
The A.M. Broadley album, collected by Alexander Meyrick Broadley, contains correspondence and images of Rev. Brian Bury Collins and other eighteenth-century English religious leaders. The leaders include John, Charles, and Sarah Wesley; Dr. Witherspoon (Signatory to the American Declaration of Independence); Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon; Ladies Glenorchy and D. Maxwell; the Rev. Rowland Hill, and others. Additionally, the collection includes materials from the early twentieth century generated by Broadley's efforts to document the life of Brian Bury Collins.
The Rev. L.H. Wellesley Wesley served vicarages in Hatchford, Worfield, and Daybrook, and established the Sandroyd School in 1888. The collection offers insights into the life of a British Anglican minister and educator who had family ties to Arthur Charles Wellesley, Fourth Duke of Wellington, and Charles and John Wesley, founders of Methodism.
Thomas Coke was a British preacher, author, and missionary who joined the Methodist movement in 1777 and became a close associate of John Wesley. Representing Wesley, Coke crossed the Atlantic Ocean nine times between 1784 and 1803 to oversee Methodist work in North America. The letters were written between 1781 and 1813.
The Barker Family collection includes letters from the Rev. John Barker to his son, Navy Chaplain Rev. Henry Barker, who served aboard the H.M.S. Defiance in 1805 and H.M.S. Renown in 1806 and 1808.