Isaac Mann autograph collection

The Isaac Mann Autograph Collection consists of letters and documents by religious figures, especially Baptist or Particular Baptist ministers, collected by Isaac Mann, himself a Particular Baptist minister. The collection spans the dates 1750-1849 and the items have been arranged alphabetically by author.

With the exception of a few notes to Mann concerning his search for autograph material, there are no letters to Mann himself in the collection. It does contain letters to and by several influential Baptist missionaries and their supporters, including David Brown, William Bull, William Carey, Christmas Evans, Andrew Fuller, and Samuel Pearce. An 1807 letter by Carey, for example, discusses the sale in England of his Sanskrit grammar and translation of the Ramayana. A number of letters are requests for assistance from or comments on the work of the Particular Baptist Fund. One such letter, addressed by Benjamin Tomkins on behalf of the Fund to the Rev. Thomas Linford of Bottsford, requests a "sincere, but also satisfactory" answer to the the Fund's concerns about Linford's teachings on the Moral Law.

There are several letters by Abraham Booth, pastor of Little Prescot-Street church in London, including defenses of his Glad Tidings to Perishing Sinners, or, the Genuine Gospel a Complete Warrant for the Ungodly to Believe in Jesus and a comment that American "metaphysical theology" may "issue in doctrinal Arminianism, and practical Antinomianism."

John Ryland (1753-1825), pastor of Broadmead, Bristol, is represented by eight items, including a 1796 letter commenting on Robertson's Historical Disquisition, notes on some scripture verses, and a short text in question and answer format on John 6:37 titled "Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ."

One of the few items by a non-Baptist is the earliest item in the collection, a sermon fragment in the hand of the Nonconforming minister Philip Henry (1631-1696). Another is a March 13, 1849 letter by the Rev. James Shore of the Free Church of England, written during his imprisonment at Exeter Gaol for preaching without a license. Addressed to the Rev. John Blackburn, the letter states that Shore is "very happy in his cell" and expresses his hope for the "entire liberation of religion from secular influence."

Other material includes an undated sermon fragment in the hand of \ Philip Henry (1631-1696); the deathbed letter of the Rev. Joseph Stennett to his parishioners; a letter by the Rev. Alexander Waugh discussing his own early religious exercises; and an incomplete notebook of "Poems on Several Occasions" and "Juvenilia," with notes on metrics, by Thomas Gibbons.