The collection comprises John Owen's diaries, 1889-1926; notebooks containing press cuttings, accounts, extracts from the Bible and historical notes; and an address book (box 1); the memoirs of John Owen entitled 'College Friends', letters, 1872-1894, including many letters concerning the tithe rent charge, papers on the 1889 Welsh Intermediate Education Bill (box 2); a catalogue of the books in the library of Bishop John Owen, 1908, speeches, draft speeches and sermons, letters and papers relating to the disestablishment and disendowment of the church in Wales, papers concerning educational matters, 1891-1895 (box 3); letters, 1893-1897, many on religious matters, including issues of church reform, some of family interest, some congratulating John Owen as Bishop of St Davids in 1897 (box 4); an incomplete manuscript, the final printers' copy and the typescript text of 'The Early Life of Bishop Owen' (box 5); letters, 1898-1905, some relating to sermons and prayers following the death of Gladstone, the 1902 Education Bill, church defence, the fire at the Bishop's Palace at Abergwili in 1903, the new Bishop of Llandaff in 1905, and matters of diocesan interest, and there are also papers, 1904-1905, concerning education, Lloyd George and the Western Mail (box 6); letters, 1897-1914, some relating to the proceedings of the Welsh Church Commission, diocesan matters, church defence etc. (box 7); correspondence and papers, 1914-1917, many relating to the disestablishment and disendowment of the Church in Wales, the Welsh Church Act, 1914, and related matters (box 8); letters, 1906-1915, some relating to the role of the church in politics, education, church defence, the Welsh Church Bill etc. (box 9); correspondence and printed material, 1914-1919, concerning disestablishment, the Welsh Church Act, the Postponement Bill and the war, the tithe and disendowment (box 10); letters and papers, 1910-1926, concerning the tithe and the Welsh Church Bill, the Welsh Church Act, the Church Commissioners, matters relating to the diocese of St Davids (box 11); bundles of letters, 1922-1926, relating to church and diocesan matters, disestablishment and finance (box 12); correspondence and papers, 1914-1926, relating to disendowment, the government of the Church in Wales, the constitutions of the Governing Body and the Representative Body of the Church in Wales, drafts, notes and correspondence concerning 'The Later Life of Bishop Owen' (box 13); papers, 1907-1918, concerning Bishop Owen's life and work, including the typescript draft of 'The Early Life of Bishop Owen' (box 14); typescript drafts of 'The early Life of Bishop Owen' (box 15); manuscript texts of 'The Later Life of Bishop Owen', and miscellaneous source materials relating to Bishop Owen's life and work (box 16); papers concerning church matters, 1889-1925, including material relating to the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, the Representative Body of the Church in Wales, the 'Diocesan Board of Finance', the 'Million Pound Fund' appeal, commutation capital, the St Davids Board of Finance etc., together with the correspondence of Miss Eluned Owen, 1954-1965 (box 17); papers relating to voluntary and parochial contributions, 1905-1908, together with an extensive collection of press cuttings (box 18).
Additional papers (boxes 19-21) comprising the letters of Bishop John Owen, his wife Amelia Owen and their family, together with the recollections of their daughter, Gwenonwy Davies, and of her husband the Very Reverend J. T. Davies, Dean of Bangor, were received in August 2017.
Owen, John, 1854-1926.
