William Cowper Papers

Acquisition of twenty letters and verses of William Cowper (1731-1800), poet, to William Bull (1738-1814), minister at Newport Pagnell, 1782-92 (H.1-25). They include autograph verses by Cowper in memory of John Thornton (H.26-27) Cowper was profoundly influenced in both his life and his writings by his circle of evangelical friends, amongst whom Bull was one of the most prominent. Bull was the biographer and editor of the works of John Newton, Rector of St Mary Woolnoth, London, and the most celebrated Evangelical divine of the period apart from Wesley.