Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Notes on Dates, Money, Welsh Place Names and Publications
- Prologue
- 1 Dr Williams and His Will
- 2 Benjamin Sheppard, Receiver 1721–31: Faith, Fitness, and Diligence
- 3 Constructing the Library Building 1725–30: A Proper Plan
- 4 Francis Barkstead, Receiver 1731–47: Piety and Charity
- 5 John Cooper, Receiver 1748–62: Liberty and Liberal Dissent
- 6 Richard Jupp junior, Receiver 1762–95: A Very Respectable Body
- 7 Richard Webb Jupp, Receiver 1795–1850, and David Davison, Receiver 1850–7: Fashionable Sympathies Amid Increasing Light
- 8 Walter D. Jeremy, Receiver 1857–93: The Scrupulous Observer
- 9 Francis H. Jones, Secretary and Librarian 1886–1914: Introducing Order
- 10 Robert Travers Herford, Secretary and Librarian 1914–25: Application and Imagination
- 11 Stephen Kay Jones, Librarian 1925–46, and Joseph Worthington, Secretary 1925–44: A New Age with Old Strains
- 12 Roger Thomas, Secretary 1944–66 and Librarian 1946–66: Trusted Innovator
- 13 Kenneth Twinn, Secretary and Librarian 1966–76: Modest Dependability
- 14 John Creasey, Librarian, and James McClelland, Secretary, 1977–98: Mixed Blessings
- 15 David Wykes, Director 1998–2021: Past, Present, and Future
- 16 Dr Williams’s Trust: An Assessment
- Appendix 1 Trustees in 1723
- Appendix 2 Lists from Short Account (with later additions)
- Bibliography
- Index
14 - John Creasey, Librarian, and James McClelland, Secretary, 1977–98: Mixed Blessings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2022
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Foreword
- Preface
- Abbreviations
- Notes on Dates, Money, Welsh Place Names and Publications
- Prologue
- 1 Dr Williams and His Will
- 2 Benjamin Sheppard, Receiver 1721–31: Faith, Fitness, and Diligence
- 3 Constructing the Library Building 1725–30: A Proper Plan
- 4 Francis Barkstead, Receiver 1731–47: Piety and Charity
- 5 John Cooper, Receiver 1748–62: Liberty and Liberal Dissent
- 6 Richard Jupp junior, Receiver 1762–95: A Very Respectable Body
- 7 Richard Webb Jupp, Receiver 1795–1850, and David Davison, Receiver 1850–7: Fashionable Sympathies Amid Increasing Light
- 8 Walter D. Jeremy, Receiver 1857–93: The Scrupulous Observer
- 9 Francis H. Jones, Secretary and Librarian 1886–1914: Introducing Order
- 10 Robert Travers Herford, Secretary and Librarian 1914–25: Application and Imagination
- 11 Stephen Kay Jones, Librarian 1925–46, and Joseph Worthington, Secretary 1925–44: A New Age with Old Strains
- 12 Roger Thomas, Secretary 1944–66 and Librarian 1946–66: Trusted Innovator
- 13 Kenneth Twinn, Secretary and Librarian 1966–76: Modest Dependability
- 14 John Creasey, Librarian, and James McClelland, Secretary, 1977–98: Mixed Blessings
- 15 David Wykes, Director 1998–2021: Past, Present, and Future
- 16 Dr Williams’s Trust: An Assessment
- Appendix 1 Trustees in 1723
- Appendix 2 Lists from Short Account (with later additions)
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Both Roger Thomas and Kenneth Twinn had been DWT secretary and librarian. Combining the offices in one person had brought successes and failures. DWT's openness to employing a librarian from beyond Unitarianism, but well versed in dissenting history, led to an experienced and talented man's appointment. With a Unitarian secretary overseeing the trust, clashes might have been expected. Would the secretary exercise a watching brief which the librarian would resent?
New Appointments
After Twinn the trustees knew that they must make two appointments, a librarian and a trust secretary. The appointments sub-committee recommended in March 1976 that the secretary, representing DWT, should have ‘overall responsibility’, while the librarian had ‘full responsibility’ for DWL. The librarian's duties included the administration of DWL, preparation of the Bulletin, reporting to library committee meetings, dealing with correspondence and manuscript accessions, publicity, printing and occasional articles, book selections, and, finally, readers’ problems. In 1976 the Unitarian minister James McClelland was appointed DWT secretary from January 1977 at £3,570 a year (£900 in lieu of accommodation) and John Creasey was appointed librarian at £2,500 with accommodation provided. Both were expected to attend DWT's general meetings.
On H. J. McLachlan's resignation in December 1976, David Arthur was elected to the trust. After fifteen years, E. Anthony Wrigley also resigned and, in 1977, Revd Fred Ryde (1914–92) and Dr Barrington (Barrie) Raymond White (1934–2016) became trustees. A second library strongroom was created in late 1976 and early 1977 from the caretaker's workroom, necessitating electrical rewiring of the entire building. Fred and Rosemary Kett became caretakers in September 1977. On Gwendolen Woodward's death in March 1978, the trustees recalled her warm personality.
New College London's Library
NCL's offer to donate ‘a substantial part’ of its library had been welcomed in March 1975. The college, which closed in June 1977, had a library, which was the heir of several dissenting academies, broadly in the Congregational tradition. The college governors, through Geoffrey Nuttall who taught church history there, offered the basic collection to DWL, with manuscript archives and other works. Such an acquisition necessitated considerable reorganisation, although the gift was accompanied by an endowment of £10,000.
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- Information
- Dr Williams's Trust and Library , pp. 259 - 270Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2022