One notebook consisting of extracts from 17th century religious pamphlets.
Additional papers consist of typescript copies and handwritten notes by Rev H.D. Roberts including essays and analysis of sermons and religious literature. Subjects covered include the history of various groups and religions including the Puritans, Presbyterians, Separatism, Quakerism, Nonconformism and Unitarianism.
Also included is a register of births and christenings at Octagon Chapel, Liverpool.
Henry David Roberts was born on 25 February 1858 in London. He was educated at Owen's College Manchester between 1877 and 1880. After University, he went to New South Wales. Between 1892 and 1893, he worked as an extension lecturer at the University of Sydney. In 1894, he returned to England and attended the Unitarian Home Mission College in Manchester for two years. He became a Unitarian minister in Chester in 1896, moving to Liverpool in 1900, where he worked for the Liverpool District Missionary Association and helped set up the Garston and St Helens missions. In 1903, he moved to Hope Street Unitarian Church, Liverpool, starting as an assistant and eventually taking over as pastor. In 1913, he returned to the Liverpool District Missionary Association. On the outbreak of war in 1914, he joined the Royal Engineers as a corporal, later becoming a lieutenant.
He was interested in nonconformist history and published the following volumes: Matthew Henry and his Chapel 1662-1900 (Liverpool: The Liverpool Booksellers Company, 1901), Hope Street Church Liverpool and the Allied Nonconformity (Liverpool: The Liverpool Booksellers Company, 1909) and Religion in Social and National Life (London: Lindsey Press, 1914)
He died on 24 April 1929 at Sevenoaks.
The original order of the two bundles has been maintained.
Obituary in The Inquirer, 4 May 1929
