Connor Missionary Manuscripts

The collection comprises a diary (English MS 705) and letterbook (English MS 705a) of William Frederick Connor who from 1886 to 1887 was travelling in and around what was then called Palestine. He corresponded with British Consuls in Damascus, Jerusalem and Beirut, largely on missionary matters. The collection constitutes a useful source for studies of nineteenth-century Palestine and of British colonial and missionary activities in the Middle East during the 1880s.

William Frederick Connor served as a missionary with the Church Missionary Society Trans-Jordan Mission in Syria 1884-1889 and Cairo 1889-1892 and was a CMS missionary at Jerusalem 1895-1896. He was ordained deacon in 1884 and priest in 1886. Connor was later curate of St Luke, Hackney, from 1897 to 1899 and from 1904-1905, and was chaplain at Dusseldorf from 1899 to 1904. He was a scholar of Arabic and collected Arabic manuscripts. Connor died unexpectedly in September 1921, leaving a widow, Helen Connor who donated these manuscripts to the Library.

The collection is available for consultation by any accredited reader.

Presented to the John Rylands Library by Connor's widow Mrs Helen Connor of Chulmleigh in March 1922 along with John Rushton's (her father) notes on Nonconformist churches and chapels (English MS 706).

Description compiled by Elizabeth Gow and Jo Klett with reference to Crockford's Clerical Directory, 1921-1922.

Catalogued in the Hand-List of the Collection of English Manuscripts in the John Rylands Library, 1928-35 (English MSS 705-705a).