| Description | The papers of John Jackson, Bishop of London 1869-1885, comprise 60 files of correspondence and papers relating to the administration of the diocese of London.
Much of the correspondence is concerned with parochial matters, particularly the controversies over ritualist practice which the Public Worship Regulation Act, 1874, threw into sharp relief. Jackson's legalistic mind, and methodical attention to detail, led to his personal involvement in numerous parishes, advising, conciliating and occasionally ordering. His comment in 1870, prior to the Public Worship Regulation Act (1874) that "I decline, as I have usually done, to give a legal opinion on a general case" sets the tone for his dealings with both High and Low church parties: each matter should be settled on its merits, and with regard to the particular circumstances of a parish and its clergy.
With regard to ritualism, there are also a significant number of papers relating to the formation, administration and jurisdiction of Anglican sisterhoods and, to a lesser extent, brotherhoods. These include the well-known Benedictine convent at Feltham founded by the charismatic Father Ignatius, and the Kilburn sisters, but also several more shadowy bodies are revealed, apparently unknown before cataloguing of these papers was completed. The membership of other guilds and societies such as the Society of the Holy Cross can also be seen to have been a contentious issue.
A love of or distaste for ritualist practices is seen to affect individual congregations and churches, but the wider changes in population within Greater London, with the decreasing number of inhabitants in the City of London and the influx of people into other sub-urban areas, are also reflected in the papers. There are a number of cases relating to the union of benefices in the City of London and the closure of churches, and the use of endowments and fixtures and fittings from closed churches in the new district, mission and iron churches which were being built elsewhere in the diocese. There is little in the papers reflecting the creation of the diocese of St Alban's in 1877, or the establishment of the Suffragan Bishopric of Bedford in 1879, although much evidence of the independence afforded to the first Suffragan Bishop (William Walsham How) under Bishop Jackson. Other retired colonial Bishops, particularly Piers Claughton, also helped to shoulder the episcopal burdens, although Bishop Beckles frequently caused him difficulties.
Help was not only offered by the higher ranks of the clergy, but also the increasing use of lay assistants for parochial work, particularly visiting the sick and also leading services, and the papers provide much evidence of this. A number of other dioceses looked to London as the example for their own schemes for encouraging the laity to an active and licensed involvement in church work. Those offering themselves for licensing as lay helpers were carefully scrutinised, in a similar way to the licensing of clergy, and the papers concerned with fraudulent clergy (including a reputed Native American) show the need for care in the appointment of those holding office in the Church. Jackson's notes of his interviews with ordinands, unique among the Fulham Papers, and his correspondence with his brother Bishops and others give an insight into the sort of man he thought suitable for the priesthood, and his views of the role and duties of the parish priest to his cure, himself, and God.
The wider Church in the colonies was still thought to be partly under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of London, and the controversy over Colenso as well as the more usual aspects of missionary work are seen in the papers. Again, the establishment of new Dioceses sees an increasing need to delegate work to a local level, although it would be some years before the Bishop of the Falkland Islands could cease his visitations which covered the entire eastern seaboard of South America. Closer to home, the pastoral care for expatriates in the fashionable resorts of the Continent is seen, yet clergy are seen ministering in more dangerous and extreme situations including on the battlefield and glacier.
Above all the papers reveal the wide range of affairs with which a conscientious Bishop was concerned, and the very real affection with which he was held by the clergy and lay members of his dioceses, as well as his life-long friends such as Evan Evans, Master of Pembroke. |