The body of this paper consists of a detailed tabular description of the contents of eight manuscripts written by Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), American religious reformer, journalist, debater, and educator. These eight manuscripts, along with a ninth published in 1971, record an important period of Campbell's intellectual and religious development before the beginning of his career as a debater and editor. Each of the manuscripts described here was begun between 1808 and 1812, when Campbell was between the ages of 20 and 24. Their contents include his educational experiences in Glasgow in 1808-1809, the story of his emigration to the United States, his determination on a career in ministry, his reading and studies, his early sermons, and records of his early work in ministry up through 1816. These manuscripts, as well as other family papers and letters, were made available to Robert Richardson by Campbell's family for his biography of Campbell published in 1868. Richardson quotes accurately and at length from them.

      In indexes and lists scattered through the first six manuscripts, Campbell names thirteen manuscripts labeled "A"-"L" and "Thesauros." Of those thirteen, only seven are known to be extant: B, C, D, E, F, I, and L. Manuscript B was transcribed and published by Lester McAllister in 1971. The remaining six of them are described here, with two others: 332 and the Sketchbook. Each of these eight will be described individually below. [2]

      Manuscripts D, E, F, I, and 332 are held in the collection at the Disciples of Christ Historical Society Archives in Nashville, Tennessee, having been deposited there in 1965 after being returned to the Disciples by Campbell descendants from Australia. Manuscripts B, C, L, and Sketchbook are held in the Campbell Collection at Phillips Library at Bethany College, Bethany, West Virginia. Apparently the Sketchbook never left Bethany. Manuscript B returned from Australia in 1952, and Manuscripts C and L, along with numerous letters and other family papers, returned from Australia in 1985.

      Manuscripts C, D, E, F, I, L, and 332 were microfilmed, along with a receipt book and hundreds of family letters and papers, by the Public Library of South Australia Microfilm Service at the request of the Churches of Christ Evangelistic Union of South Australia's Archives shortly after they were rediscovered in Australia in the mid-sixties. Copies of this film are available from the Disciples of Christ Historical Society. Manuscripts E and 332 were microfilmed again by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society. Manuscript B and the Sketchbook have never been microfilmed.

      This description was compiled from photocopies made onsite from the original manuscripts in 1980, 1981, 1985, and 1988, and reflects the condition of the manuscripts at that time, about 15 to 20 years after the microfilm masters were made. The listings for each manuscript were compared with the microfilm copies to confirm that the page count is reliable. I hope that this list of contents will assist students of Campbell's thought and of his preaching by giving them readier access to the contents of the microfilmed versions of these materials.

      My description of these manuscripts is presented as both a Microsoft Excel 2000 spreadsheet file and as a print document based on the spreadsheet data. Except for [3] Manuscript L and the Sketchbook, each manuscript opening is numbered as an exposure, left and right. Thus 023R means the right-hand side of the twenty-third opening. Since Campbell numbered the first sixty-six pages of Manuscript L, I have continued his numbering, so that a microfilm user will want to count two pages per opening. The Sketchbook, which has no microfilm equivalent, is numbered as one page per exposure.

      Manuscript D, "Journal of a Voyage from Ireland towards America, 1808," is the earliest of the manuscripts described here. This book of 200 unnumbered pages of fine white paper, 19.5 cm. tall and 12 cm. wide, has been restored and rebound since it was microfilmed. It is held at DCHS in Nashville. I photocopied it on January 2, 1981. It appears as the third manuscript on the first reel filmed by the Public Library of South Australia. The contents of Manuscript D include a journal of the family's emigration to America, beginning with 1808 entries in Rich Hill. It includes the gripping story of how they were shipwrecked and saved, and how they came to Glasgow to winter there 1808-1809. It mentions friends in Glasgow in the religious community and in school, and then resumes the narrative when the family embarked again in 1809. After the close of the narrative when they arrived in Washington, Pennsylvania, the remainder of the notebook is filled with outlines of varying levels of detail for fifty sermons, as well as a list of books read in 1811 and a list of sermons preached in 1810-1811. This manuscript provides both an exciting biographical travel narrative and important chronology and contents of Campbell's earliest preaching.

      Manuscripts C and L, like the published Manuscript B, were begun in 1808 in Glasgow while Campbell was enrolled in the university there. Thus these three [4] documents fit chronologically in the middle of Manuscript D, although each also includes later material as well.

      Manuscript C, "Memento: Notes and Observations Taken Down from a Course of N. Philosophy and Experimentally Delivered, in Anderston Institution, Glasgow, Nov. 8, 1808, by Professor Ure," is a book of 168 unnumbered pages of white paper, 20 cm. tall and 12 cm. wide. It is Article 109 in the Campbell Collection of Phillips Library at Bethany College. I photocopied it there on Dec. 30, 1980. It appears first on the second reel of film made by the Public Library of Australia. Two-thirds of the pages run right to left from the 1808 title page, but the remainder of the pages run from the rear of the book, upside down so as to preserve a right-to-left sequence. The film copy gives the openings 1-49, followed by 67-50. I have listed them in order from 1 to 67, indicating where between openings 49 and 50 there are 32 blank pages. Besides notes on Professor Ure's lectures from 1808-1809, the manuscript contains four sermon outlines, studies of symbolic language, an account of Campbell's first mission circuit in Ohio (1811), an index to scriptures in Manuscripts B, A, and "Thesauros," and a 21-page account of an 1814 proposal to move the Brush Run Church to Ohio. (The latter church planting, though approved by the congregation, was trumped by Campbell's father-in-law Brown, who gave Campbell the family farm and thereby funded the rest of Campbell's lifetime of ministry, while retaining his daughter and granddaughters nearby.)

      Manuscript L, "Lectures in Logick Delivered by Professor Jardan in the University of Glasgow, 1808," is a large book, 29.5 cm tall and 17.5 cm wide, with 383 partially numbered pages. The front cover is detached. It is held at the Phillips Library at Bethany College. It appears second on the second reel filmed by the Public Library of [5] South Australia. The photocopy I have was made in July of 1985, with some pages added in 1988, and is on loan from the library at Bethany College. Alternate leaves in the manuscript from pages 3 through 28 were cut out to allow copies of Campbell's 1810 "Clarinda" essays, cut from the local newspaper, to be pasted in over the handwriting. When these clippings were later removed by conservators, the eleven newly-revealed pages were copied and sent to me. Of course the missing pages cannot be restored, but the cleaned pages are fairly legible.

      Manuscript L contains Campbell's notes on 108 lectures given by George Jardine, Glasgow professor, in his "First Course in Logic and Belles Lettres." Jardine's students were required to write out his lectures in full after class, as well as to compose assignments summarizing his key points. Copies of Campbell's responses to these assignments are preserved partly in this manuscript and partly in Manuscript B, published as Alexander Campbell at Glasgow University. Manuscript L also contains an extended extract on the Holy Spirit from the works of John Owen, four indexes to subjects and scriptures in Campbell's manuscripts, in Thomas Campbell's sermons between 1800 and 1806, and to Alexander Campbell's sermons from 1810-1811.

      In this manuscript is preserved an invaluable witness to the pedagogy and content of Professor Jardine, who taught both Thomas and Alexander Campbell the fundamentals of Scottish Baconianism. For scholars of 18th-and 19th-Century intellectual history, even if they have no interest in the Campbells' reformative mission, this document is extremely important. To those who wish to understand the formation of Alexander Campbell's concepts of communication and psychology, it is profoundly revealing. This [6] manuscript is also remarkable in the listing it gives of Thomas Campbell's preaching texts before his emigration to America.

      Manuscript E, "A Diary, Jan'y 1st, 1809," is a well-preserved book of 168 white unnumbered pages, 18.5 cm. tall and 11 cm. wide. It is held by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society Archives in Nashville. I photocopied this manuscript on Jan. 2, 1981. It appears as the second item on the first reel of microfilm made by the Public Library of South Australia. It is the first item on the reel of microfilm made by DCHS. It contains Campbell's devotional diary beginning on New Year's Day, 1809. It records his reflections on his own religious life and on scripture, his notes on religious subjects, and two of his earliest sermons, one on 2 Cor. 13:5, and one on John 3:3, and 10 other sermons and studies through the end of 1810. Particularly interesting are his New Year's resolutions for study for 1810 and subsequently for 1811.

      Manuscript F, "Juvenile Poems," has 180 unnumbered pages, 20 cm. tall and 12.5 cm. wide. The front cover is missing, and several of the first few pages are detached. The entire manuscript has suffered water and mildew damage, so that the pages are darkened, reducing legibility. It is held by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society in Nashville. I photocopied it there on Dec. 31, 1980. This manuscript appears fourth on the first reel of microfilm produced by the Public Library of South Australia. Like Manuscript C, this volume is written from both front and back. The film copy gives the openings 1-31, followed by 80-32. I have listed them in order from 1 to 80, indicating where 20 blank pages separate the two sections, and where the pages appear "upside down" in the original. Manuscript F contains material from 1808 to 1812, including poems, extracts from reading, two "Glass hymns," 26 sermons from 1811, lists of books Campbell read in [7] 1811-1812 (about 8,000 pages!), and his resolutions for the end of 1811, in which he made the decision to be ordained to full time ministry on January 1, 1812.

      Manuscript I, "Extracts and Original Essays," has 224 unnumbered pages, 20 cm. tall and 16.5 cm. wide. The manuscript has a small bookplate on the inside front cover numbered 331. Eighty-six of the 224 pages are torn out. The stubs of the torn pages show that most of the pages were filled with writing, now only a letter or two per line. The manuscript is held by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society Archives in Nashville. I photocopied it there in 1981. It is the sixth item on the first reel of microfilm made by the Public Library of South Australia. Manuscript I contains material from 1809 to 1815, including translations from Oedipus Tyrannus and Homer, notes on Greek lectures in 1809 by Glasgow Professor Young, lists of books belonging to Campbell and to his father, two "Letters to Mr. Smith" written for publication in 1815, and a copy of a disciplinary letter to Brush Run church member John Hanks in 1815. Also included is a list of family dates as late as 1815 and the full text of a sermon from Num. 23:10.

      The Sketchbook, as I have nicknamed it, is a 26 cm. high x 20 cm. wide notebook of about 80 unnumbered pages. Someone had used the back cover and several interior pages for pencil sketches, hence the nickname. Three sheets of 34 cm. tall paper are pinned into the manuscript, and folded to the back to be the same height as the others. This manuscript is Article 114 in the Campbell Collection of Phillips Library at Bethany College. It has not been microfilmed. It contains materials from 1811 to 1816, with one note possibly as late as 1823. Its contents include a 19-page geographical description of the U.S., based on the 1810 census and later data up to 1816. Extracts from George Campbell's Preliminary Dissertations on the Gospels, James Beattie's Elements of Moral [8] Science, and Warburton's Future State are also included. The notebook is mostly filled with Greek exercises from Acts 6-7, and Matthew 10-11. Though the geographical material and extracts are in Campbell's hand, clearly the Greek exercises are done by his student(s).

      Manuscript 332, so named because of the number on the bookplate inside the front cover, has 186 unnumbered pages, 19 cm. tall by 16 cm. wide. It has Selina Huntington Campbell's signature dated Oct. 26, 1867, on the flyleaf. The manuscript is held by the Disciples of Christ Historical Society Archives in Nashville. I photocopied it there on Jan. 2, 1981. It appears as the fifth item on the first reel microfilmed by the Public Library of South Australia, and as the second item on the reel produced by DCHS. The manuscript contains the texts or outlines of 39 sermons beginning in 1812 and several other notes on scriptural subjects. It has a four-page "Review of Religious Principles" written on the day Campbell was ordained to the ministry, January 1, 1812. An 1813 three-page entry anticipates the 1814 proposal to move the Brush Run church to Ohio. "Three questions to the Christian Association" in January, 1812, contain a reply written in Thomas Campbell's hand pointing to his Declaration and Address. [9]