Joseph Angus, Regent’s Park College, London, to Thomas Raffles, Liverpool,  2 November 1857.

My dear Sir,

         I send you a list of what I have: whence you will readily fathom several conclusions: as first—that tho’ some Colleges have the rule “ne faemina intra portam introeat” we have none such, further, Tros Rutulusve fiat; i.e. Divine or no Divine, “Nullo discrimine habebo,” further still, we have nothing to boast of only a couple of hundred or so, in all; or yet enough to deserve the encouragement of “our betters.” Principles lie deep: so to save you time, I may say that there is a principle in our admission, which I fancy becomes our dignity as a Collegiate Institution: not on the surface of my list, but still when told sufficiently clear.  Every autograph is the autograph of one who has written a book and printed it.  And my plan is to illustrate a good copy of the author’s book with his kaligraph.  Besides the interest thus given to the volume, it interests our student & helps the memory.  A book I very much prize for example is D.r Raffles admirable life of Spencer, a presentation Copy from the Author to D.r Collyer.  (Please note that heirs at law of autographs or autographed books have no sense of propriety: why was this sold? or this other [Robert] Southey’s own copy of Bunyan an autographed gift to his wife?). D.r Collyer has added an annotation, characteristic enough, on p. 31 (Ed. of 1813) “not Kelly’s but C[harles]. Wesley’s” attesting the same with his sign, W. B. C.  And so I dignify the amusement by persuading myself that the writing adds to the value of the printing, & to the interest & improvement of the reader.

         Now & then I come across an autograph worth keeping, the autographer having written no book at all: such cases however only illustrate the wonderful futility of the human mind.  I cannot ‘find’ a way to use it, so I ‘make’ one—aut inveniam, aut faciam—Is there not a book written about him?  This ‘L’Ouverture’ for example will go anywhere in this “Life of Napoleon,’ this ‘Cox’s History of the Baptist Mission’ or if one is hard pushed—is there not “The Hour & the Man”? So I put a letter of “Devotion Mayhew’s” attesting to D.r Guise, the reality of the Conversions under Jonathan Edwards’ Revivals, in “The History of the Great Awakening” & deem it in its right place.  From all which you will see that any autographs you can spare that can be used to illustrate books will be welcome. Many of those I give on my list are written on books & so are mere names: This applies to Howe, I[saac]. Walton, M[atthew]. Hale, [Samuel] Lavington & others, some indeed of the best. On the other hand, of those marked  X  I have more than one letter.  I will send the Vol. of Doddridge by M.r Birrell the first time he is in Town.

         I could not have gathered from the fulness of your note, & its promptness that it was Saturday: I fear you will readily conclude from the prolixity of mine, that it is Monday: a day when ministers are disposed to lounge & gossip rather than “gird up their loins” for work.  In truth however you must not blame the day, but your own letter.  It is so cordial & generous that I cannot but reply at length; indeed I cannot.

                     Very truly Yours

                                 Joseph Angus

Regent’s Park  Nov. 2.  1857

P.S.  I send by this post a view of our House which perhaps will answer your purpose as well as the one I sent the other day.

Rev. T. Raffles.

[Attached to this letter is the following list of 171 literary and religious figures whose autographs were possessed by Angus c. 1857.  Their names appear in full below and in alphabetical order, and not as they appeared in Angus’s letter, which was usually by last name only, and in a few cases with first initials or some other identifying descriptor.  One name is unintelligible. An asterisk (*) has been placed by those names marked with an “X” by Angus, indicating that he had more than one autograph of that individual.]

Allen, John (1771-1843)

Anderson, Christopher (1782-1852)

Arnott, Neil (1788-1874)

Ash, Dr. John (1724-79)

Austin, S.

Barnes, Joshua (1654-1712)

Barton, Benjamin Smith (1766-1815)

Beddome, Benjamin (1717-95)

Bell, Sir Charles (1774-1842)

Beloe, William (1756-1817)

Belsham, Thomas (1750-1829)

Bentham, Jeremy (1748-1832)

Bickersteth, Edward (1786-1850)

Birks, Thomas Rawson  (1810-83)

Booth, Abraham (1734-1806)

Boswell, James (1740-95)

Bowles, William Lisle (1762-1850)

Bowyer, George (1811-83)

Bradbury, Thomas (1677-1759)

Brine, John (1703-65)

Brown, Dr. John (1764-1842)

Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878)

Buckland, William (1784-1856)

Burke, Edmund (1729-1797)

Burney, Charles (1726-1814)

Burnside, Robert  (1759-1826)

Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881)

Carson, Alexander  (1776-1844)

Chalmers, Alexander  (1759-1834)

Chalmers,  Dr. Thomas (1780-1847)

Chandler, Benjamin (d. ca. 1729)

Chardin, Sir John (1643-1713)

Chater, James

Clarkson, Thomas (1760-1846)

Collier, John Payne (1789-1883)

Collyer, William Bengo (1782-1854)

Conybeare, William D. (1787-1857)

Copleston, Edward (1776-1849)

Corly, William Franklin

*Cruden, Alexander (1701-70)

Davies, Samuel (1723-61)

Doddridge, Philip (1702-1751)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-82)

Erskine, John (1721-1803)

Evans, Caleb (1737-91)

Evans, Hugh (1712-81)

Evelyn, John (1620-1706)

Farmer, Hugh (1714-87)

Fawcett, John (1740-1817)

Fleming, Robert  (1630-94)

*Foskett, Bernard (1685-1758)

Foster, John (1770-1843)

Fuller, Andrew (1754-1815)

Gibbons, Thomas (1720-85)

Gill, John (1697-1771)

Gisbourne, Thomas  (1758-1846)

Good, John Mason (1764-1827)

Gregory, Olinthus (1774-1841)

Hackett, Horatio B.  (1808-75)

Hale, Sir Matthew (1609-76)

Hall, Robert sen (1728-91)

Hall, Robert jun (1764-1831)

Hamilton, James (1767-1839)

Hamilton, Sir William (1730-1803)

Hampden, Renn Dickson (1793-1868)

*Harmer, Thomas (1714-88)

Hartopp, Sir John (1637?-1722)

Harwood, Edward (1729-94)

Hawkins, Edward (1789-1882)

Hawkins, Ernest (1802-68)

Henry, Matthew (1662-1714)

Herschel, Sir John F. W. (1792-1871)

Hone, William (1780-1842)

Horne, T. H

Horsley, Samuel (1733-1806)

Howe, John (1630-1705)

Hughes, Joseph (1769-1833)

Hunter, Joseph (1783-1861)

James, Isaac

Jenner, Dr Edward (1749-1823)

Judson, Adoniram (1788-1850)

Kinghorn, Joseph (1766-1832)

Kircher, Ernst Wilhelm Gottlieb (1758-1830)

Knibb, William (1803-45)

*Knowles, James Sheridan (1784-1862)

Knox, Alexander (1757-1831)

Lampe, Carl (1809-61)

Lavington, Samuel (1726-1807)

Leechman, William (1706-85)

Lewis, John (1675-1747)

Lofft, Capel (1751-1824)

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth (1807-82)

Louverture, Toussaint (1743?-1803)

Macauley, Thomas Babington (1800-59)

Mackintosh, Sir James (1765-1832)

Mantell, Gideon Algernon (1790-1852)

Marsh, Herbert (1757-1839)

Marshman, Joshua (1768-1837)

Mead, Richard (1673-1754)

Milman, Henry Hart (1791-1868)

Montgomery, James (1771-1854)

Montgomery, Robert (1807-55)

Moore, Thomas (1779-1852)

More, Hannah (1745-1833)

Neal, Daniel (1678-1743)

Newton, John (1725-1807)

Nott, Josiah Clark (1804-73)

*Orton, Job (1717-83)

Parr, Samuel  (1747-1825)

Pearce, Samuel (1766-99)

Pillans, James (1778-1864)

Powell, Baden (1796-1860)

Price, Richard (1723-91)

Price, Thomas (1787-1848)

Pritchard, James Cowles (1786-1848)

Rees, Abraham (1743-1825)

Reid, James (1798-1851)

Reid, Thomas (1710-96)

Richmond, Legh (1772-1827)

Rippon, John (1751-1836)

Robinson, Robert (1735-90)

Robinson, Thomas (1749-1813)

Roediger, Emil (1801-74)

Rollin, Charles (1661-1741)

Romaine, William (1714-95)

*Rosenmueller, Ernst Fredrich Karl (1768-1835)

*Ryland, John Collett (1729-92)

*Ryland, Dr. John (1753-1825)

Secker, William (d. 1681?)

Sharp, Granville (1735-1813)

Sigourney, Lydia H.  (1791-1865)

Smith, John Pye (1774-1851)

Southey, Robert (1774-1843)

Steadman, William (1764-1837)

*Stennett, Samuel (1727-95)

*Stennett, Joseph (1663-1713)

*Stennett, Joseph (1692-1758)

Stephen, Sir James (1789-1859)

Stewart, Dugald (1753-1828)

Story, Joseph (1779-1845)

Stuart, John (1743-1821)

Sumner, Charles Richard (1790-1874)

Sutcliff, John (1752-1814)

Taylor, Isaac  jun (1787-1865)

Toplady, Augustus (1740-78)

Toulmin, Joshua (1740-1815)

Towgood, Micaiah (1700-92)

Turner, Dawson (1775-1858)

Tytler, Patrick Fraser (1791-1849)

Unwin, William

Wall, William (1646/47-1727)

*Wallin, Benjamin (1711-83)

Walton, Isaac (1593-1683)

Ward, William (1769-1823)

Wardlaw, Ralph (1779-1853)

Watson, Richard (1737-1816)

Watts, Alaric Alexander (1797-1864)

Watts, Isaac (1674-1748)

*Wayland, Francis (1796-1865)

West, Jane (1758-1852)

Whewell, William (1794-1866)

Whitefield, George (1714-70)

Wilberforce, Bishop Samuel (1805-73)

Wilks, Mark (1748-1819)

Williams, William Rosser (1798-1873)

Wilson, H. H. (1786-1860)

Wootton, John (1668?-1765)

Worthington, Hugh (1752-1813)

Wrangham, Francis (1769-1842)

Yates, William (1767-1857)

Text: ENG. MS. 372, fol. 47f, Raffles Collection, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. For a detailed discussion of the Angus-Raffles Correspondence, see Timothy Whelan,  “Joseph Angus and the Use of Autograph Letters in the Library at Holford House, Regent’s Park College, London,” Baptist Quarterly 40 (2004), 455-76.

References above are to William Bengo Collyer (1782-1854), minister at Independent congregations at Peckham and Salter’s Hall, London; Isaac Toussaint Louverture (1743?-1803), whose History of the French Military Expedition to St. Domingo under Napoleon  appeared in 1841; Francis Augustus Cox (1783-1853), who pastored the Baptist congregation at Mare Street, Hackney, for more than forty years and author of His History of the Baptist Missionary Society (1842); Experience Mayhew (1673-1758), Congregational missionary to the Native Americans on Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts; John Guyse (1680-1761) minister at Independent congregations in Hertford and at New Broad Street, Londonl; and a reference to Joseph Tracy’s The Great Awakening: A History of the Revival of Religion in the Time of Edwards and Whitefield (1841).