| Description | The Canterbury Letters are pasted into two scrapbooks. Undated letters were gathered together at the beginning of the first volume. Then the letters were stuck in in rough date order. The first volume contains letters up to 115B and the second volume letters 115C onwards.
Some sources state that Joseph Brigstock Sheppard (1828-1895), who worked in the archive from the 1860s onwards, compiled the volumes. Others maintain that they were compiled by Cyprian Rondeau Bunce (1752-1807) in 1806. Bunce is not otherwise known to have mounted or bound any of the documents he catalogued.
The volumes are accompanied by summary lists of the letters drawn up in 1829 (now Cant Let 248 and 249). Taking into account letters which have been added or removed since that date, these lists correspond to the letters as bound. Canon John Russell conducted a survey of the cathedral's archives upon instructions from the St Catherine's Chapter of 1828, and it would seem likely that the Canterbury Letter volumes were compiled as part of this survey.
The method of compilation is unlike that of the other series of scrapbooks which were compiled by Sheppard: the Sede Vacante Scrapbooks, the Miscellaneous Scrapbooks and the Christ Church Letters. In these, abstracts and comments are frequently added on the backing pages, and the result is often untidy and unsightly. Only occasionally is there an abstract on backing pages in the Canterbury Letters, and the volumes are in general much more attractive.
The volumes were catalogued by Charles Eveleigh Woodruff (1855-1948), honorary librarian. This catalogue is now MSS Cat 66. Woodruff's numbering scheme has been retained.
Details supplied for clergy of the cathedral are taken from the Canterbury volumes in the Le Neve Fasti Anglicanae series. The standard works by Emden, Venn and Foster on graduates from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge have been used for other clergy.
The following works are referred to in the catalogue
Collinson, P., Ramsey, N., Sparks, M. (eds), A history of Canterbury Cathedral (Oxford, 1985);
Ficaro, B., Nicholas Wotton: Dean and Diplomat (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Kent at Canterbury, 1981);
Hasted, E., The history and topographical survey of the county of Kent, 12 vols (Canterbury, 1797-1801);
Ingram-Hill, D., The Six Preachers of Canterbury Cathedral (Ramsgate, 1982);
Pantin, W.A., Canterbury College Oxford vol 3 (Oxford Historical Society, New Series, vol 8, 1950);
Sheppard, J.B., Christ Church Letters (Camden Society, New Series, vol 19, 1877);
Sheppard, J.B., Litterae Cantuarienses, 3 vols (Rolls Series, 1889);
Somner, W., The Antiquities of Canterbury 2nd edn (reprinted Wakefield, 1977);
Woodruff, C.E., and Danks, W., Memorials of the Cathedral and Priory of Christ in Canterbury (London, 1912)
See also, Annesley, C., 'The history of the Canterbury Letters', submitted as part of an MA report for University College, London (included as an appendix).
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