Additional Wilberforce Papers

This collection consists of the papers of William Wilberforce, including diaries, religious journals, autobiography, correspondence and miscellaneous papers; and the correspondence of Robert Isaac Wilberforce.

The members of the Wilberforce family of Markington represented in this collection are William Wilberforce (1759-1833), MP and philanthropist, and his second son Robert Isaac Wilberforce (1802-1857), Archdeacon of the East Riding and author. Details are given in the Dictionary of National Biography.

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card (for admissions procedures see http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/specialcollections).

The entire collection was bought from the Wrangham family in 1988, with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Radcliffe Trust, the Pilgrim Trust, the Friends of the Bodleian, the Friends of the National Libraries, Manor Trustees and Hymns Ancient and Modern.

Collection level description created by Emily Tarrant, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts.

A full catalogue is available in the Library.

The papers descended through the families of Robert Isaac Wilberforce and his younger brother Henry William, and was brought together by the late C.E. Wrangham. To these papers which had descended to him from his father, Mr. Wrangham added others recorded in the 1960s as being in the possession of Miss Irene Wilberforce and Mrs Judith Sandwith.

See also Wilberforce Family Papers (MSS. Wilberforce a. 1, b. 1, c. 1-31, d. 1-51, e. 1-24, f.1-5, g. 1-17), and Diaries of Samuel Wilberforce (Dep. e. 311-31).

Extracts from William Wilberforce's diaries were printed in R.I. and S. Wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce (London, 1838).

Robert Isaac Wilberforce's letters were extensively used by David Newsome in The Parting of Friends (London, 1966).