Jessica Woodward, Pusey House Librarian, writes: Pusey House Library and Archive is the UK’s leading centre for the study of Anglo-Catholicism. Located in the centre of Oxford, it forms part of Pusey House, an independent institution founded in 1884 to keep alive the theological legacy of the Anglo-Catholic figurehead Dr Edward Bouverie-Pusey (1800-1882). The Pusey House Chapel offers year-round worship, while the Library and Archive are open to all researchers, whether university-affiliated or independent. The Library holds over 75,000 volumes on theology and church history, ranging from a 1475 incunable originally owned by Dr Pusey to newly published monographs. The Archive holds over twelve miles of material dating from the 19th to the 21st century. Papers of Dr Pusey himself are of course key to the Archive’s collecting policy, and we are delighted if an opportunity arises to acquire new historical sources regarding our namesake.
Early in 2022, a contact of ours at the USA’s National Institute for Newman Studies alerted us to six original letters from Dr Pusey, available on eBay. We could see immediately that these were interesting letters – not only were they fairly lengthy, they also demonstrated Pusey’s thoughts on a range of moral and economic matters. There was his advice to a Mr Chardleigh on the best sort of editor for a manuscript - apparently, one who never inserts content but only omits, and ‘would not look for any thing for his trouble’. Another letter contained a forceful repudiation of a nun at Ascot Priory who had been soliciting money, while another still described Pusey’s impecunious situation regarding his property at Stormont House. These letters gave insight into Pusey’s approach to business and finance, as well as revealing a few biographical details. Then there were two letters showing Pusey’s interest in helping young people – one relating to an impoverished young woman reluctant to marry, and another discussing an ‘earnest, plain, well-meaning’ man hoping to enter the priesthood. Finally, a shorter note to a Mr Richards illustrated Pusey’s weariness at the personal attacks he had to suffer from newspaper journalists as a result of his Anglo-Catholic faith.
We knew that we would love to have these letters in the Archive for our researchers, but our budget is small and, as an independent institution, we do not receive any financial support from the Church of England, the University of Oxford, or any similar large body. Back in 2017, the FNL had very kindly helped us to purchase some letters from Pusey to clergyman Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser. We decide to approach them again and were thrilled when they agreed to fund 43% of the cost of the six new Pusey letters. We would like to record our thanks here to the members who made this possible.
Upon arrival, the letters were exhibited in our display case for a few weeks, allowing readers to enjoy them and take notes for future research. Doing my best to overcome the challenges of Pusey’s notorious handwriting, I created transcriptions to aid readers. The next step was to file the letters into our existing collection of Pusey correspondence and update the catalogue. This has been done, and the letters can now be found and requested using the reference numbers PUS 155/1 to PUS 155/6.
Very many thanks again to FNL for enabling us to enhance one of our core archival collections with these six letters.
