Papers of R.W. Church

Notebooks containing diary entries, brief details of books read, quotations from various works and notes on various subjects, of R.W. Church, Dean of St. Paul's, mainly compiled when he was Rector of Whatley, Somerset.

Richard William Church (1815-90) was born in Lisbon, the eldest son of John Dearman Church, a merchant. He was brought up in Italy until his family moved to England when he was 13. He was educated at Redland school near Bristol and then at Wadham College, Oxford. After graduating in 1836, he became a Fellow of Oriel College and was involved in the Oxford Movement. In 1852 he resigned his fellowship to get married and accepted the living of Whatley parish, Somerset. In 1871 he accepted the deanery of St. Paul's, where he remained until his death. Further 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 notebooks were given to the Library by Col. Humphrey Paget in 1977 and reserved from use until 1990.

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

A catalogue of the collection is available online at http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/specialcollectionswmss/online/online.htm.