Holy Trinity Church

Anglican worship in Geneva
‘The names of all the Childeren that have been baptised in the English Churche and Congregation in Geneva from tyme to tyme…..’
The picture above is an extract from the Register of the English Church in Geneva 1555-1559 known as the ‘Livre des Anglois’.

Valerie Offord is the official church archivist. Shortly after her appointment in 1986 she was able to persuade Dr Mollie Barratt, archivist in charge of local and parish records at Oxford University Library (the Bodleian Library), to come over to Geneva to sort, help and advise us on how to classify our archives. Dr Barratt remarked with some surprise at the time that Holy Trinity Church has a collection of records as good as many parishes in England.

Like her predecessor, Valerie kept most of HTC’s archives at home and this proved very convenient when answering queries which frequently arrive by post and email from not only Switzerland but many parts of the globe and also for those who wished to consult them personally for theses, books, learned papers and suchlike. However, the collection has grown considerably since those non-digitised days of the 1980s and it was agreed that it is not wise for an archive of this magnitude to be kept in a private house. The Geneva State Archives were willing to take them on deposit.

Consequently a group was formed to list, classify, and where possible to digitise, the most frequently consulted documents from 1814 to 2003. The State Archives staff specifically asked us to do this before handing the archives to their safekeeping in 2018. They already had on deposit the Livre des Anglois, the Parish Register of 1555-59 presented to the Genevan authorities by the Marian Exiles when they left to return to England and Scotland after the death of Catholic Queen Mary Tudor and the accession to the throne of England of the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I. The original deeds of the gift of land donated by the city to build Holy Trinity Church upon were deposited in 2004.


archives1A page from the ‘Livre des Anglois’: the names of all the children who were baptized. The godfather in the first entry (4 January 1556, John Stafford) is John Calvin. When the child’s father, Sir William Stafford, died unexpectedly in May 1556 this led to a ferocious custody battle between his widow, Lady Dorothy, and Calvin.


archives2A ‘care and concern’ receipt from the 19th Century


Access to the Archives

All the originals are held at the following address:

Archives d’Etat de Genève

Rue de la Terrassière 52

1207 Genève

Opening hours: Mondays 1pm to 5pm and Tuesdays 9am to 5pm

Alternatively access to copies can be obtained via the church office – please contact the secretary Michèle Walker

Archives Listing for Holy Trinity Church Geneva

I           MINUTES AND OTHER DOCUMENTS CONCERNING THE FOUNDATION AND RUNNING OF THE CHURCH

II          CORRESPONDENCE AND ACCOUNTS (1821-1993)

III         ACCOUNTS & OTHER FINANCIAL PAPERS (1892-1991)

IV        DEEDS OF THE SITE

V         SUBSCRIPTION BOOKS (1816–1871)

VI        PAPERS RELATING TO THE CONSTITUTION

VII       LATER PAPERS RELATING TO THE CHURCH FABRIC  (1857-2016)

VIII      REGISTERS OF BAPTISMS, MARRIAGES & BURIALS (Box)

            (detailed lists in chronological order )         

IX        REGISTERS OF SERVICES

X         PHOTOGRAPHS

XI        PRINTED MATERIAL

XII       OTHER MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS)

            2 books (copies of records):

            LIVRE DES ANGLOIS 1555-1560

            LIVRE DE STEMMATA

XII       OTHER MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS

            2 books (copies of records):

            LIVRE DES ANGLOIS 1555-1560

            LIVRE DE STEMMATA

           Visitors Book 1977-84

           Book 1890  (Inventory of church goods, list of church goods  and Cricket Minutes)

           Copy of deed for Jubilee Bed 1887 (Original in the State Archives Instructions for

           funerals  

           List of Contents of safe in Lloyds Bank (old)

LISTS OF THE COUNCIL MEETINGS (1814-2003) IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

AND ACCORDING TO SUBJECT

The pdf accessible here lists the full archive records