Writings of the Radical Welsh Baptist Minister William Richards (1749-1818)

“Intellectually honest, meticulous and precise, clearly and succinctly written, grappling to understand a mentality and a world far from our own, This book is a worthy and permanent addition to the historical literature on eighteenth-century religious dissent.” – Prof. John Seed

“. . . without a doubt a contribution to scholarship as well as a labour of love. The book brings together a number of primary sources from a range of locations.” – Prof. Hywel M. Davies

“Dr. Oddy provides a fascinating insight into the friends and associates of William Richards in Georgian Lynn which was clearly a hub of radical and religious political thinkers to an extent perhaps unappreciated before.” – Prof. Paul Richards

This work systematically reconstructs the theological and political beliefs William Richards was believed to propagate. The man emerges as a rather courageous radical propagandist for a ‘scriptural’ Christianity, peace, and municipal and national political reform. The book’s apparatus also includes bibliographical sections and a discussion of a large missing archive and of correspondence.
The author’s admiration for Richards as a person does not invariably extend to Richards’s ideas, against some of which he brings informed criticisms.

Preface
Foreword by Dr. John Seed
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Constructing and Explaining the Anthologized Texts
A Chronology of William Richards’s Life
1. Introduction: William Richards’s Career and Connections
2. William Richards’s Portrait of Georgian Lynn
3. William Richards on Politics
4. William Richards and Religion
5. William Richards, Wales, and America
6. Envoi: The ‘Christian Philosopher’
Appendix
Bibliographical Writings
1. William Richards’s Writings
2. Records, etc., and Writings of Richards’s Contemporaries and Near-Contemporaries
3. Later Studies
4. The Missing Archive of John Evans of Islington
5. William Richards’s Bequest of Books to Brown University, Rhode Island
Glossary of Theological Terms
General Index
Index of Names

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