Correspondence from the bishop of Barbados, William Harte Coleridge (in England for...

Correspondence from the bishop of Barbados, William Harte Coleridge (in England for much of this period), to the secretary of state mainly concerning ecclesiastical matters such as his visits, and those of the archdeacon, to the various parts of his diocese, financial assistance for the building of churches in Antigua, Anguilla, Barbados, St Lucia, Nevis and Grenada, and the appointment, salaries, passages, conduct and resignation of members of the clergy. Correspondence also includes:

• Printed returns to questions put to the clergy of the diocese concerning: increases in places of worship, services, congregation, number of communicants and schools; details of school accommodation, numbers of pupils and instruction given, numbers leaving school and their employment; details of Sunday Schools and attendance; numbers of slave marriages, and are they more frequent; Sabbath observation; visiting the sick; where and by whom are slaves buried; is education provided on estates; and do slave women attend church to give thanks for the safe delivery of a child. Returns are for Barbados, Demerara and Essequibo, St Vincent, Grenada, Carriacou, Trinidad, St Lucia, Antigua, Nevis and Anguilla.
• 'Plan of the site and elevation of the proposed new chapel in that part of Bridge Town called The Bay in the Island of Barbados'
• Extracts of correspondence from Robert Holberton, rector of St John's, Antigua, concerning developments there
• Manuscript copy of the tenth annual report of the Barbados Society for the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church
• Petition from Demerara concerning marriage arrangements there
• Printed copy of a letter from the bishop to members of the clergy on his return to Barbados mainly concerning the subjects addressed in the returns described above. With appended extracts from 'Archbishop Wake's Charge to the Clergy of his Diocese, when Bishop of Lincoln, in his primary Visitation, begun at Lincoln, May the 20th, 1706'
• Extracts from The Barbadian of 18 September 1829 giving a report of the first annual meeting of the 'Antigua Daily Meal Society', and the third annual report of the Society for the Education of the Coloured Poor in the Principles of the Established Church, and for other Charitable Relief. A further undated extract gives the fourth annual report of the Ladies Association for the Relief of the Indigent Sick and Infirm.
• 'Plan of the intended New Church for St James, Windward, in the Island of Nevis' with estimate of its cost

Topics

International

Labour

Marriage and divorce

Religions

Caribbean

Pay and pensions

Slavery

Population

Poverty

Sex and gender