The Dublin Unitarian Church Collection
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_________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Dublin Unitarian Church Collection. Combined Catalogue of the First and Second Deposits. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Special List/ Liosta Speisialta. Catalogued by Róisín Berry and Martin Fagan. September 2010 _________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Funded with assistance from Project funded with assistance from The Heritage Council Heritage Management Grant Scheme 2010. The Heritage Council Heritage Museums & Archives Grant Scheme 2007. The Dublin Unitarian Church, 2010. The Royal Irish Academy gratefully acknowledges the financial subventions received. - 2 - Royal Irish Academy © Contents. page page Introduction. 4 Catalogue to Second Deposit. 72 Background information. Trusts and Properties. Provenance and Archival History. 4 Rankin Trust. 73 Scope and Content. 5 Singleton Trust. 123 First Deposit Cook Street Property. 156 Second Deposit 6 Lowton Trust. 178 Arrangement. 9 Damer Trust. 197 Reference Codes. 11 Sundry Properties. 207 Accessibility. 12 Strand Street congregation Property. 212 Related Material. 13 Stephen’s Green Property. 219 Further Reading 14 14 General Administration of Stephen’s Green congregation. 229 Catalogue to First Deposit. 15 Huxley Public Utility Society. 240 Irish Unitarian Churches. Church and School Records. Appendix 1: 242 Strand Street. 16 Eustace Street. 28 Material moved from Second Deposit to Cook Street. 37 Pamphlet Collection or placed with the First St Stephen’s Green. 38 Deposit. 242 Sermons and Church Bulletins. 64 Appendix 2: 243 Irish Religious Bodies. Minutes and Financial Records. Access Policy including Application Form 243 Southern Association of Ireland. 68 Irish Unitarian Christian Society. 70 - 3 - Royal Irish Academy © Introduction Background information. 1 The birth of Unitarianism in Ireland can be traced back to the arrival of English Puritans on Irish soil, and a substantial number of Scottish Presbyterian Planters in Ulster, during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. During the early 18 th century opposing views of the doctrine of the Trinity lead to tensions between Presbyterian communities. In 1702, Thomas Emlyn, the minister of the Wood Street community was imprisoned for his opinions which were adjudged to be heretical. During the 1720s, in an effort to enforce orthodoxy, Presbyterian communities were required to subscribe to the ‘Westminster Confession of Faith’. When John Abernethy and sixteen other ministers refused to do so they were expelled from the Synod of Ulster thus leading to the emergence of the ‘Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church.’ Abernethy later became minister at Wood Street. Continued efforts during the mid-1800s to enforce conformity and other factors resulted in Unitarianism being centred in Dublin. Prince’s Street community in Cork city was the only congregation outside of Dublin, not to be restored to mainstream evangelical Presbyterianism. The two Dublin congregations were based in Strand Street and Eustace Street. Amalgamations appear frequently in the history of Irish Unitarianism and both Dublin congregations merged in 1866. The Strand Street congregation erected a new Meeting House in the 1760s and their numbers were strengthened shortly afterwards when the community at Wood Street merged with them. The Cook Street congregation followed suit shortly afterwards, moving to Strand Street in 1787. In 1857 the Strand Street congregation purchased a site on the west side of St. Stephen’s Green using money bequeathed to them by Thomas Wilson. In 1863 the congregation opened their new church at 112 St. Stephen’s Green. This Gothic Revival building, designed by architects Lanyon, Lynn and Lanyon of Belfast, continues to be used by the Unitarian community today. The Eustace Street congregation was originally based in New Row. In the late 1720s they took a lease for a new site on Eustace Street where they too built a new Meeting House. In July 1866, following a resolution of the Committee of Eustace Street congregation, it was resolved that the Eustace Street and Stephen’s Green Congregations should amalgamate. The newly constructed building on St. Stephen’s Green became home to both congregations. The congregations benefited from bequests which were managed by Trust Funds (discussed below). This allowed them to operate a number of charitable institutions and schools including the Damer and Singleton Schools. Records of these trusts and schools are included in the collection. Following the closure of the Damer School at St. Stephen’s Green the premises was leased as a theatre, known as the Damer Hall. From 1910 until 1962 the congregation was ministered to by Rev. E. Savell Hicks. The majority of the draft sermons and lectures contained in this collection come from the pen of this renowned preacher and thinker. 1 Source: http://www.unitarianchurchdublin.org/history.htm Accessed July 2010 - 4 - Royal Irish Academy © Provenance and Archival History. The Dublin Unitarian Church Collection was donated to the Royal Irish Academy by the Dublin Unitarian Church in two separate deposits. The first deposit was made in 2006, with the second occurring in 2008. As a result, the two deposits were processed and catalogued by two archivists working in 2007 and 2010 respectively. While there are certain differences between the types of material contained in each deposit they, nevertheless, both contain documents arising from the same church activities and dating from the same period. It has been decided, therefore, to amalgamate both catalogues into this single volume, while at the same time retaining the separate identity of each. The processing of the collection was part-funded by Heritage Council grants received in 2007 and 2009 and from funding provided by the Dublin Unitarian Church in 2010. The first deposit is comprised of documents relating to the Unitarian community of Dublin and some of its predecessor congregations, located over time at premises in Wood Street, Cook Street, Eustace Street, Strand Street, and St. Stephen’s Green. Consisting of over 1700 documents, the collection includes committee minute books, cash books, collection books, subscription lists, petty cash books and other financial material, school registers and account books, correspondence, reports, sermons and lectures. These documents were created and maintained by congregation members, acting in their various official capacities e.g. Management Committee secretaries, Trustees, School Board members etc. Prior to its donation to the Royal Irish Academy the material had been box-listed by Stephen Ffeary-Smyrl, researcher in 2001. Following its acquisition by the Academy the collection was processed and catalogued by archivist, Roisin Berry, in 2007. Her catalogue corresponds exactly to the first half of this volume, entitled ‘Catalogue to the First Deposit’ and her introduction to that catalogue has also been incorporated into this introduction. The second deposit consists overwhelmingly of papers relating to the various Trust Funds or Properties operated by the Unitarian congregation. These papers were originally held by Hone and Falkiner, solicitors who managed the trusts on behalf of the congregation. They typically consist of title deeds, wills, deeds of conveyance, legal opinions, building and valuation reports, correspondence with tenants of properties and dealings with the Land Commission. The trusts operated principally during the later 19 th and early 20 th centuries but the collection also contains some original documents from the 18 th century as well as copies of deeds from that period. Hone and Falkiner clearly filed documents together by Trust Fund, rolling the papers of each trust into a number of bundles. They did not, however, create a consistent order, chronological or otherwise, within each bundle or between bundles. It appears likely (based upon physical observation alone) that the bundles had not been opened or the order disturbed since their return to the congregation. This material has been catalogued by Martin Fagan, archivist in 2010 and has been included in the second half of this volume, entitled ‘Catalogue to the Second Deposit’. - 5 - Royal Irish Academy © Scope and Content. First Deposit- by Roisin Berry, archivist. The documents [of the first deposit] provide a glimpse of the daily business of the different congregations, addressing a variety of different subjects including the management and administration of the charity schools, apprenticeships of pupils, appointments of staff and committee members, property dealings, meetings of the Synod of Munster, congregational accounts and funds, maintenance of church and school premises, erection of memorial tablets, admissions to the widows’ alms house, union of congregations, subscriptions and donations, and the establishment of a congregational library. Of particular interest, however, are the minute books, which provide a rich source of information on the congregations and their members between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. Minute books, account books and school registers provide valuable data on the area of education and the establishment of charity schools by the Unitarian community in Dublin during this period. The minute books in particular address a range of different areas of interest, such as accommodation, apprenticeships,