The Rawlinson Collection, held at the Bodleian Library, Oxford,
is undoubtedly one of the most important surviving collections of early modern
manuscript sermons. This collection of a wide range of early modern manuscripts
contains hundreds of volumes of manuscript sermons. One entire section of the
collection, MSS. Rawlinson E, is dedicated to sermons, though manuscript
sermons also are found in other sections of the collection. This collection was
the work of Richard Rawlinson, who donated the bulk of his books and
manuscripts to the Bodleian in the eighteenth century.
Richard Rawlinson, Antiquarian,
Nonjuror and Collector
Richard Rawlinson, born on 3 January 1690, was the son of
Sir Thomas Rawlinson, a vintner and lord mayor of London in 1706. He was
educated at St John’s College, Oxford, graduating with BA in 1711 and
proceeding MA in 1713. Rawlinson received the honorary degree of DCL in 1719
and also became a fellow of both the Royal Society and the Society of
Antiquaries. Rawlinson was greatly interested in topography, biography and
antiquarian studies. All of these interests were encouraged while he was at
Oxford, where he was influenced by Anglo-Saxon scholars and the work of Anthony
Wood, who had compiled much information on Oxford and its scholars from the
seventeenth century. Rawlinson began collecting books as a student and also
spent much time studying manuscripts at the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian
during his time at Oxford.
Rawlinson’s interest in manuscripts also was encouraged by
the fact that he was a dedicated Jacobite and nonjuror, principles which he
inherited from his father but also shared with many of his fellow antiquarians
at Oxford. In 1716, Rawlinson was ordained as a priest in the nonjuring Church
of England by Jeremy Collier. In 1728, he was consecrated as a nonjuring
bishop. Like many nonjurors, Rawlinson was interested in finding precedents and
traditions to justify nonjuring positions. He also played a very important role
in preserving the history of the nonjurors, collecting biographical information
on the nonjurors along with many of their letters, sermons and other
manuscripts.
Rawlinson’s older brother Thomas helped inspire his interest
in book collecting, for Thomas was an avid collector and had accumulated a
large collection of books and manuscripts by the time of his death in 1725. Unfortunately,
by this time, Thomas also was deeply in debt, partly due to his collecting. From
1726 until 1734, Richard Rawlinson spent much of his time cataloguing and arranging
for the sale of his brother’s vast collection, under the supervision of his
sister-in-law’s new husband. However, Rawlinson managed to purchase many of his
brother’s manuscripts when they came up for auction, and these manuscripts
enhanced the collection that he had begun to expand while travelling in Europe
in the early 1720s.
Rawlinson’s passion for manuscript collecting only increased
from the 1730s. He spent much time not only at auctions and bookshops but also
at grocers’ and chandler’s shops, ferreting out important manuscripts from
amongst papers sold for scrap. Rawlinson organized all these varied papers and
had them bound in volumes to preserve them for the future.
By the time of his death in 1755, Rawlinson had amassed an
extensive collection of books and manuscripts related to his interests. Because
Rawlinson was single and had no heirs, there had long been speculation about
the fate of his collection. Before his death, Rawlinson had begun to donate
some of items from his collection to worthy institutions, including the
Bodleian, St John’s College and the Society of Antiquaries. The Bodleian’s
librarian, Humphrey Owen, sought to cultivate this important patron and always
made sure to properly acknowledge Rawlinson’s donations to the library. Fortunately
for the Bodleian, the Society of Antiquaries removed Rawlinson from his
recently-elected post of vice-president in 1754 because of his Jacobite
sympathies, and he took the society out of his will. This left the Bodleian and
St John’s as the primary beneficiaries in his will, and Rawlinson bequeathed
his manuscripts, charters, seals and some of his books to the Bodleian,
providing an important addition to its holdings.
Rawlinson’s Early
Modern Sermon Collection
Rawlinson collected a wide range of early modern sermons.
The earliest sermon notes in his collection date to the 1560s (MS. Rawl. D.
1061), and the collection includes a number of other sermons from the late
sixteenth century. The majority of sermons date to the second half of the seventeenth
and early eighteenth centuries. However, the Rawlinson Collection also contains
many sermons from the first half of the seventeenth century, including sermon collections
by Archbishop James Ussher preached from 1618 to 1634 (MS. Rawl. D. 1290); Dr Thomas
Lushington preached c. 1620-30 (MS. Rawl. E. 95), Bishop Robert Sanderson
preached c. 1620-30 (MS. Rawl. E. 96) Dr Francis Rogers, vicar of Alkham, Kent,
preached c. 1624 (MS. Rawl. E. 128); and John Bayly of Worcester preached from
1635 to 39 (MS. Rawl. C. 216).
The collection includes sermons by a diverse range of
preachers. Rawlinson acquired many sermons by well-known and high-ranking
preachers, including numerous bishops. There are multiple-volume collections of
sermons by Bishop Peter Gunning (MSS. Rawl. C. 613-25); Bishop Francis Turner (MSS.
Rawl. C. 627, E. 8-9, E. 191-94); Dr Thomas Turner, president of Corpus Christi
College, Oxford (MSS. Rawl. C. 626, E. 186-90); and Daniel Price, dean of St
Aspah (MSS. Rawl. E. 176-85). There also are sermons by Dr Brian Walton, later
bishop of Chichester (MS. Rawl. E. 23); Dr Nathaniel Hardy, dean of Rochester (MS.
Rawl. E. 1); Archbishop John Tillotson (MS. Rawl. E. 125); Dr Anthony Horneck,
preacher at the Savoy, London (MS. Rawl. E. 167); Dr Edmund Gibson, vicar of St
Mary, Lambeth and later bishop of London (MSS. Rawl. E. 116-17); and Dr Samuel
Clarke, rector of St James, Westminster (MS. Rawl. E. 127).
In addition to the sermons by notable clergy, Rawlinson purchased
many sermons by ordinary or even unidentified preachers. There are sermons by
Thomas Lydiat, rector of Alkerton, Oxfordshire, from the 1610s (MS. Rawl. E.
168); Dr Thomas Swadlin from c. 1660-70 (MSS. Rawl. E. 136-47); Thomas Naish,
sub-dean of Salisbury, from the 1690s (MS. Rawl. D. 1300); and a Mr. Constable,
who is likely George Constable, lecturer of St Paul Shadwell, London, from 1706
to 1728 (MSS. Rawl. E. 105-6). There are many volumes of anonymous sermons,
such as a collection of sermons preached in Hertfordshire, Essex and Middlesex
between 1692 and 1716 (MSS. Rawl. E. 81-89), and of miscellaneous sermons, such
as MS. Rawl. E. 21, which contains eighteen sermons that date from 1598 to
1661.
While the bulk of the sermons in Rawlinson’s collection were
preached in England, there are some volumes that come from further afield.
There are several collections of sermons from Scotland, including three volumes
by Robert Leighton, archbishop of Glasgow (MSS. Rawl. D. 142, E. 26-27), and a series
of notes recording sermons by a number of Scottish preachers in 1669-70 (MS. Rawl.
C. 26). One manuscript contains sermons preached in Scotland and Ireland from
the 1630s to the 1650s (MS. Rawl. D. 830), and there is another Irish sermon c.
1630-40 (MS. Rawl. E. 114). There are a number of sermons from Wales, such as
some of the sermons by Daniel Price c. 1685-1706 (MSS. Rawl. E. 176-85), and
sermon notes from a variety of Welsh preachers from the 1650s (MS. Rawl. C.
261). The collection even includes a few sermons that were preached in
Newfoundland by Jacob Rice, who went to the new world in 1705, but later
returned to England (MSS. Rawl. E. 173-74).
Although the majority of sermons are by clergy of the Church
of England, Rawlinson also acquired sermons by other preachers. Most notably,
the collection includes twenty-four volumes of sermons from 1691 to 1715 by the
Presbyterian minister Robert Fleming, which were preached in Rotterdam and
London (MSS. Rawl. E. 44-67), and eleven volumes of sermons by the Independent
minister John Beaumont of Deptford, Kent from 1688 to 1730 (MSS. Rawl. E.
97-103, E. 109-112). There also are several sermons by puritan preachers from
the mid-seventeenth century (MS. Rawl. D. 1348), sermon collections by
nonconformists from the early 1660s (MSS. Rawl. E. 77, E. 93), sermons by the
Baptist minister John Piggot from 1698 to 1703 (MS. Rawl. D. 1352), and
collections of sermon notes from a variety of nonconformist preachers from the
late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries (MSS. Rawl. E. 108, E. 121). Rawlinson
obtained a number of French sermons by Huguenot clergy in London from the 1660s
to the 1710s (MS. Rawl. D. 641), and sermons and lectures by Jean Nissolles of
Jersey from 1699 to 1705 (MS. Rawl. E. 18). There also is a volume of
thirty-five German sermons among Rawlinson’s collection, but it is unclear
where they were preached (MS. Rawl. E. 25). Unsurprisingly, Rawlinson collected
a number of volumes of sermons by nonjurors. He acquired sermons by the
nonjuring bishops Samuel Hawes (MSS. Rawl. E. 10-14) and George Hickes (MS. Rawl.
E. 20), and by the nonjuring preacher Denis Granville (MS. Rawl. D. 852).
Richard Rawlinson’s passionate, eclectic and undiscriminating
interest in early modern manuscripts resulted in a diverse collection of
manuscript sermons. Many of these sermons may have been lost without his
efforts, and scholars benefit from the fact that Rawlinson was interested not
only in well-known but also obscure and anonymous preachers. We currently are
entering the details of these manuscript sermons into GEMMS to make this
valuable collection more accessible to sermon scholars.
Bibliography
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