William Henry Black

William Henry Black (7 May 1808 – 12 April 1872) was a Victorian antiquarian and Seventh-Day Baptist leader. During his lifetime, he was well known in London antiquarian and literary circles for his talent for paleography and archiving. He was the member of many historical societies, and the founder of three more. He published numerous articles and books, during his lifetime, with more published posthumously.

Black was lesser known, but equally regarded, for his prominence in London Seventh-Day Baptist circles, leading a small congregation in London, which never held more than twenty people. This circle was the subject of a newspaper article in 1869, where the reporter wrote of the contrast between the dilapidated building the services were held in, and their leader, Black, who appeared as "a profound scholar and most courteous gentleman".

Early life and education William Henry Black was born on 7 May 1808, in Walworth, Surrey, to Mary and John Black of Kitmore. His mother's family, the Langleys, were the wealthy proprietors of estates in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and strongly influenced Black's religious and historical interests, as well as his future religious opinion. He was educated at a private school, and acted as the tutor of several families in Tulse Hill when he was seventeen.

Antiquarian career The earliest record of Black's antiquarian interests exist in his catalogues of various libraries. He catalogued the Arundel Manuscripts, at the College of Arms in 1829 (before they were purchased by the British Library) and, as the Leathersellers' Company requested in 1831, Abraham Colfe's grammar school library. From 1831 to 1833, Black worked in Oxford, compiling a catalogue of Elias Ashmole's manuscripts, published in 1845, to much esteem. He also produced an original work in this time, Docquets of Letters Patent Passed Under Charles I, 1642-6, which was printed in 1837, but only published posthumously.

In 1840, again thanks to his literary connections, and his reputation as a paleographer, Black acquired the position of assistant keeper at the Public Record Office, which had been established only two years earlier. His duties, here, included cataloguing the Pell Office records and preparing reports on the records of HM Treasury. He was one of the earliest members of the British Archaeological Association (est. 1843) the Camden Society, and several English local history societies, specifically: the Surrey, London and Middlesex, and Wiltshire Archaeological societies. He was also the founder of three antiquarian societies, all concerning Biblical archaeology: the Chronological Institute of London (est. 1850), the Palestine Archaeological Association, and the Anglo-Biblical Institute. According to Bernard Nurse of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Black was "highly regarded by his contemporaries", and John Ashton, writing for the Dictionary of National Biography, has called him "a conscientious and painstaking antiquary". During this time there were only five members: himself, and the Slaters: Harriet (his third wife), Ann, Charlotte and Sophia.

In 1869, Black's congregation was the subject of a newspaper article by C. M. Davies, where he found the building in disrepair, with a languishing fourteen-person congregation, in an "unlikely-looking, unsavoury place". Black died in Mill Yard, on 12 April 1872, leaving behind less than £1500 in his will.