St. Philip's Parish Library

St. Philip's Parish Library, also known as the Higgs Library, was a public library attached to St Philip's Church in Birmingham, England between 1733 and 1927.[1]

The library was founded in 1733 by St. Philip's first rector William Higgs and was based around his own collection of books, supplemented by purchases paid for from a bequest of £200.[2] Unlike Birmingham's earliest public library, founded between 1635 and 1642, or the later Birmingham Library of 1779 – both of which were largely dissenting institutions – Higgs' Library was associated with the established Church of England.[2] Advertised as "free to all clergymen in the town and neighbourhood",[1] it was also open to laymen with the permission of the rectors of St. Philips or of Birmingham's original parish of St Martin in the Bull Ring.[2]

The library moved in 1792 to a room adjoining the parsonage in St. Philip's churchyard.[1] A catalogue of 1795 shows that by then the library had acquired a wide range of books on philosophy, history, economics, education and literary criticism, as well as the expected range of theological and ecclesiastical literature.[2]

The library was closed in 1927, with 300 volumes from its collection being presented to Birmingham Central Library and 150 volumes being presented to Queen's College, Edgbaston.[1]

References
  1. Ker, Neil Ripley; Perkin, Michael (2004), "BIRMINGHAM, Warwicks. (W. Mids.) St. Philip (from 1904 the Cathedral). Birm.", A Directory Of The Parochial Libraries Of The Church Of England And The Church In Wales, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 140, ISBN 0948170131, retrieved 7 May 2012
  2. Money, John (1977), Experience and identity: Birmingham and the West Midlands, 1760–1800, Manchester: Manchester University Press, p. 126, ISBN 0719006724, retrieved 7 May 2012

52.4817°N 1.8976°W / 52.4817; -1.8976

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