Personal papers of Canon Samuel Augustus Barnett, social reformer. The papers comprise correspondence, sermons and lecture notes, and miscellanea. The bulk of the correspondence consists of weekly letters from the Canon to his brother, Francis G. Barnett and, after the latter's death, to his widow and her daughter and sons. For the years before 1883 there are no letters at all, and before 1889 there are fewer than for the later years of the correspondence. Normally the Canon wrote every Saturday, but there are frequent periods when there was no correspondence, when the Canon was in residence at Bristol during the summers of 1893-1906, and when the two families were holidaying together. There are also large groups of letters written by the Canon to his mother and family in the form of travel journals during his trips to Egypt in 1879-1880 and round the world in 1890-1891.
There are very few in-letters. The letters to F G Barnett are almost always four octavo pages in length. They were bundled in one or two year periods by Dame Henrietta when preparing her biography of her husband. On several letters there are editorial instructions, deletions and emendations by Dame Henrietta. These were made in pencil and were, at some subsequent period, erased. Within each bundle Dame Henrietta also numbered the letters. Her numbering has not been indicated in the list, nor has it been followed, as several of the letters were in fact misplaced.
There is a series of bound sermon notebooks and miscellaneous lecture notes amongst these papers. Although the sermon notes are basically complete for the St. Jude's period, 1875-1888, the lecture notes are only a fraction of the Canon's output.
Some miscellaneous documents and in-letters were kept by the Canon for their intrinsic importance, e.g. formal documents relating to his benefice at St. Jude's, and these have survived. There are, in addition, miscellaneous photographs, mostly of the Canon, but also of his wife and of his family.
These papers will be of interest to historians for the information they give on Canon Barnett's life, and for the frequent and lengthy discussions of the political, social and intellectual life of the day. They are enhanced in value by the fact that Dame Henrietta was avowedly unable to do them more than scant justice in her life of the Canon (see Canon Barnett: his life, work and friends vol I, p.377), and that the records of Toynbee Hall have been decimated by war damage and destruction.
Barnett , Samuel Augustus , 1844-1913 , Canon of Westminster Social Reformer