Philanthropy was an essential feature of the relationship between Dissent and the society from which it sometimes felt itself to be separate.

Philanthropy was an essential feature of the relationship between Dissent and the society from which it sometimes felt itself to be separate.

This collection examines the contribution made by Dissenters from the Church of England to the history and development of charity and philanthropy in Britain from 1660 to the beginning of the twentieth century. It looks at the importance of charity and philanthropy in supporting Protestant Dissent and the causes with which it was associated; the part charity and philanthropy played in helping to fashion a self-identity for Dissent and for individual denominations; and the distinctive contributions made both by Dissenters generally and by particular denominations. Dissent and philanthropy intersect at many different points and levels: between the public and the private, the state and the individual, the voluntary and the organized. Philanthropy was an essential feature of the relationship between Dissent and the society from which it sometimes felt itself to be separate. Each chapter not only covers the contribution of a particular denomination but forms a case study of a wider aspect of charitable or philanthropic activity within Dissent as a whole. This volume is the first study which examines the contribution of Dissenters to charity and philanthropy, one of the most important developments in British society between the Restoration of Charles II and the outbreak of the First World War.

CLYDE BINFIELD is Emeritus Professor in History at the University of Sheffield. His publications have concentrated on nonconformist history, in particular its social, cultural, and political contexts, from the late eighteenth century to the mid twentieth century. G. M. DITCHFIELD is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Kent. His publications includeThe Evangelical RevivalGeorge III. An Essay in Monarchy, andThe Letters of Theophilus Lindsey (1723-1808). DAVID L. WYKES is Director of Dr Williams's Trust and Library. He editedParliament and Dissent with Stephen Taylor and, with Isabel RiversJoseph Priestley, Scientist, Philosopher, and Theologian andDissenting Praise.

CONTRIBUTORS: Clyde Binfield, John Briggs, Hugh Cunningham, G. M. Ditchfield, Jennifer Farooq, Mark Freeman, Elizabeth Gow, David Jeremy, Stephen Orchard, Alan Ruston, David L. Wykes

Introduction - Clyde Binfield and G.M. Ditchfield and David L. Wykes
Dissent and Charity, 1660-1720 - David L. Wykes
Dissenters and Charity Sermons, c.1700-1750 - Jennifer Farooq
John Howard, Dissent and the Early Years of Philanthropy in Britain - Hugh Cunningham
Rational Philanthropy: theory and practice in the emergence of British Unitarianism, c.1750-c.1820 - G.M. Ditchfield
David Nasmith (1799-1839), philanthropy expressed as campaigning - Stephen Orchard
Building Philanthropy: the example of Joshua Wilson (1795-1874) - Clyde Binfield
Funding Faith: Early Victorian Wesleyan Philanthropy - David Jeremy
Unitarians and philanthropy after 1844: the formation of a denominational identity - Alan Ruston - David L. Wykes
Children and Orphans: Some Nonconformist Responses to the Vulnerable in Victorian Britain - John Briggs
The Rowntree family and the evolution of Quaker philanthropy, c.1880-c.1920 - Mark Freeman
'Not slothful in business': Enriqueta Rylands and the John Rylands Library - Elizabeth Gow