As to the Established Church—
i. Note-book of Sir Joseph Williamson.
ii. Applications for preferments, and correspondence relating to them.
iii. Private letters alluding in various ways to Church affairs.
As to Nonconformists—
i. Informations against them, which are very numerous.
ii. A spy-book, containing many curious particulars of suspected persons.
iii. Correspondence containing a great number of incidental allusions to the condition of Nonconformity.
The details are generally of a minute description, and would very extensively serve the purpose of biographers and local historians; but they are not without considerable value for a purpose like mine, as my foot-notes will testify.
Amongst the new historical illustrations thus afforded, are those connected with the ecclesiastical aspects of the general election of 1661, with the rumoured plots of that and succeeding years, plots in which Nonconformists were accused of being involved,—the conduct of Nonconformists under their persecutions,—and the fabrication of letters with the view of involving Nonconformists in trouble—of which one striking example occurs in relation to William Baffin, and, as appears very probable, another referring to certain London ministers. There are also notices of the Indulgence of 1672, and of the case of Colledge, the Protestant Joiner, as he was called. It is apparent how much the antipathies of the two religious parties of that day were augmented by political considerations; and from the documents are also obtained many interesting and amusing glimpses of private social life.
II. Next to the State Papers, I may mention a collection of fragmentary remains in the Archives of Parliament, connected with the passing of the Act of Uniformity,—and especially the Book of Common Prayer attached to the Act (described in my Appendix), prefixed to which is an Analysis of the alterations made in the formularies. Accurate copies of these papers have been furnished for my use by the kindness of Sir Denis Le Marchant.
III. The well-known MS. Collections in the British Museum and at Lambeth. They have yielded items of information I believe not published before—particularly the returns made to Episcopal inquiries as preserved in the Archiepiscopal Library.
IV. The MSS. in the University Library of Cambridge. I have found amongst these some papers which have been of service, especially in relation to the reign of James II.; one of them, giving an account of the opening of Parliament, I have printed in my Appendix.