Pearse family collection, 1648-1991, bulk 1652-1849

Printable guide [HTML]
Request items

Summary

Creators:
Pearse Family (1652-1740)
Abstract:
A collection of material related to the Pearse family, an English family of religious Dissenters in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Extent:
3.96 Linear Feet (6 boxes)
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Pearse family collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Background

Scope and content:

Materials related to a family of 17th and 18th century Dissenters, who actively did not adhere to the Church of England. The collection includes manuscript sermons, pamphlets, and letters written by various members of the Pearse family, as well as some family documents, including wills. Materials offer a multi-generational family perspective, as well as writings by women, on topics such as church and state politics, religious and personal belief, censorship, and early modern religion and activism. The collection also includes printed and manuscript works by other authors including Stephen Addington, John Howe, Edward Leigh, John Ross Macduff, Catharine Maria Sedgwick, and John Trotter. Also includes full transcriptions of a portion of the letters, transcribed by P. A. V. Hickling, an early owner of the collection. In addition, the collection includes the research materials of David A. Thomas, a 20th century scholar who worked with the collection and original sources to write a book, The Pearse Collection: Chronicles of a Preaching Family, 1600-1750, which was never published.

Biographical / historical:

The Pearse family of Ermington, Devon, England, were a land-owning family in the 17th to 19th centuries. Francis Pearse (approximately 1600-), was described as a "gentleman" who owned land in the Ermington area. The various members of the Pearse family continued to live in the area around Ermington, as well as Moorfields in London, and Tadley, Hampshire. William Pearse (1625-1691) was ordained in the Church of England but was ejected by the Act of Uniformity in 1665 and thereafter preached privately as a Dissenting minister. Being landowners, the Pearse family had a relatively sound financial basis and during the 17th and 18th centuries they continued to worship as nonconformists with church and their religious beliefs at the center of their lives.

Acquisition information:
Purchased from Dean Cooke Rare Books Ltd, January 2023.
Processing information:

Processed by Gayle M. Richardson, July 2025.

Arrangement:

Organized in three series: Series 1. Correspondence and documents, 1652-1830; Series 2: Bound volumes, 1648-1849; Series 3. Research material and book, 1968-1991.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for use by qualified researchers and by appointment. Please contact Reader Services at the Huntington Library for more information.

RESTRICTED: Box 2: Graduation certificate can be unfolded but seal is damaged and fragile, please do not open metal seal tin.

Terms of access:

The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item]. Pearse family collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Location of this collection:
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, CA 91108, US
Contact:
(626) 405-2191
reference@huntington.org
Website