Catalogue description The Evan Owen Papers Towards a History of the Baptists in Liverpool.

1. Histories of Baptist Churches of the Liverpool District.

2. Histories of Hill Cliff, Nantwich, etc.

3. "The Romance of the Liverpool Baptists".

4. Biographical sketches of Baptist Worthies.

5. Documents Illustrative of Liverpool Baptist History.

6. Local and Other Baptist Associations: notes and papers.

7. Histories of Baptist Churches on the Wirral.

8. The Liverpool Boys and Girls Religious Services and Ragged School Union.

9. Welsh Baptist Material.

10. Other material, not directly concerned with the Baptist History of Liverpool.

11. Scattered notes.

Owen, Evan of Liverpool

Acc. 033

According to this office's Accession Book, these papers were received in this library in November 1924. However there is no reference to the papers in the library's Stock Book of that year. Part of the collection, at least, had been deposited by Mr. J.T. Wynne Jones, in the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, by whom it was forwarded to this library in July 1925 (see 286 OWE 11/2 below).

• Liverpool

Very little information can be traced on Evan Owen. He appears in the Liverpool Directory of 1870 described as a paint manufacturer, residing at 18 Westbourne Street. His address later becomes 72 Smith Street, Kirkdale, and the description of his occupation also varies, for example in 1924 he is described as an oil and colour merchant. In the letter referred to above Evan Owen is stated to be deceased. Sellars in A History of the Liverpool Baptist: the Minor Churches [1962] describes Owen thus: "... not merely an indefatigable collector of facts, but a gentleman of profound historical sense."

An undated letter (see 286 OWE 11/2 below) states that "about 20 years ago, the Baptists decided to compile material towards a history of the Liverpool Baptists ...Mr. Evan Owen was asked to undertake the Welsh section, and Dr. A.E. Hawkes the English section". It would seem that Evan Owen went beyond this and collected a mass of information on the Baptist movement in the Liverpool area generally. His notes are usually written in pencil with carbon copies, and sometimes a fair copy in ink. A considerable amount of printed material has also been amassed. It would seem that Evan Owen had begun his labours by the turn of the century and that they continued into the 1920's.

Ian Sellars undertook the task of sorting the papers in 1961, and his arrangement has been kept in this present list, although a number of additions and alterations have been made. Sellars' conclusions on the papers and their compiler can be found in Salute to Pembroke, [1960] and The Minor Churches, [1962] whilst Stockwell, A.H. The Baptist Churches of Lancashire, [1917] and Whitley, W.T. Baptists of North West England, 1649-1913, 1913 provide general background information to the Baptist movement in the North West.

• View Record