Eighteenth Century Religious Archives and “Lived Religion”

This article discusses the deposit since the 1950s of the Church of England's local and national records, with particular reference to the eighteenth century, in Lambeth Palace Library and elsewhere, especially local authority archive offices. These records illustrate the established Church's engagement during the “long-eighteenth century,” nationally, regionally and locally, with all levels of English society. The cataloguing and accessibility of these archives significantly contributed to the post-1960s burgeoning of English social and economic history, particularly research about poverty, literacy and education. Frequently such research has neglected the religious-faith base of the creators of these archives. However, parallel research about religion in the lives of laypeople and of English society generally in the “long-eighteenth century” has led to questioning the long-standing hypothesis of English society's secularisation following the seventeenth century Civil Wars. The article therefore provides a case study illustrating parochial and diocesan archives' evidence of religion permeating people's lives. Large numbers of better-off laypeople lived out their religious faith by establishing and sustaining voluntary elementary education for poor children in the 3Rs and the practice of Christian faith and subsequently securing apprenticeships or service for them. Evidence also suggests large numbers of poor parents took up these opportunities.