This collection is divided into the following sections:
(A) Charters etc.
(B) Proceedings in Chancery concerning the grant of the first charter, 1788-94.
(C) Proceedings in Chancery concerning the grant of the second charter, 1834-5.
(D) Minutes, 1794-1956.
(E) Treasurer's accounts and subscriptions, 1793-1972.
(F) Correspondence and papers, 1642-1929.
(G) Maps and miscellaneous papers, 1724-1849.
The Society originated in a bequest by Robert Boyle (a director of the East India Company) in 1691 for advancing religion amongst infidels. Until the American War of Independence the rents of an estate at Brafferton, Yorks., were remitted to William and Mary College, Virginia. In 1794 the charity was reconstituted as The Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction and Education of the Negro Slaves in the British West-India Islands, and in 1836 after the abolition of slavery as The Society for Advancing the Christian Faith in the British West-India Islands, and elsewhere, in the Dioceses of Jamaica, and of the Barbadoes and the Leeward Islands, and in the Mauritius. A supplemental charter was issued on 29 October 1962. See 'The two charters of the Society for Advancing the Christian Faith ... to which is prefixed a short account of the charitable fund', 1836. Particular undertakings of the Society included the awarding of grants to the William and Mary College in Virginia, for the education of young Native Americans, and missionary work amongst slaves in the Caribbean, Mauritius and other British dependencies. See Henry Otis Dwight, H. Allen Tupper, Edwin Munsell Bliss, The encyclopedia of missions (New York and London: Funk & Wagnall Company, 1904).
Open
Deposited on permanent loan 1973
Descriptions available on the National Archives Discovery site < http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk> as well as the Library catalogue.
Micropublication of the Christian Faith Society is available from World Microfilms Publications and is held by a number of other repositories.
Lambeth Palace Library microfilm: MS Film 1159-1169.
