| 'John Haryson | |
| 'John Norton, Mr. | |
| 'Richard Field | } Wardens |
| 'Humphrey Lownes | |
| 'Edward White | |
| 'Humfry Hooper | |
| 'Simon Waterson | |
| 'William Leake | |
| 'Robert Barker | |
| 'Thomas Mane | |
| 'Thomas Dawson | |
| 'John Standishe | |
| 'Thomas Adames | |
| 'John Haryson[58] | |
| 'Ri. Collins, Clerk of the Companie. | |
'Havinge lately byn entreated, as well by the said Sir Thomas Bodley, Knight, as by the Maister, Wardens, and Assistants of the foresaid Company of Stacõners, to take some spetiall notice of this their publique acte and graunte, and (in regard of our beinge of his Maiestyes highe Comission in ecclesiasticall causes) to testifie under our handes with what allowance and good likinge we have thought it meete to be received, Wee doe not onlie as of merrit comend it to posteritie for a singuler token of the fervent zeale of that Company to the furtherance of good learninge and for an exemplarie guift and graunt to the Schollers and Studients of the Universitye of Oxford, But withall we doe promise by subscribinge unto it, that if at any tyme hereafter occasion shall require that we should help to maynteyne the due and perpetuall execucõn of the same, Wee will be readie to performe it, as farre as either of our selves thoroughe our present authoritie or by any whatsoeuer our further endeavours it maie be fitlye procured.
'G. Cant.
'Jo. London
'Jo. Benet
'Tho. Ridley
'Tho. Edwardes
'G. Newmane
'John Spenser
'Richard Moket
'R. Cov. & Lich.
'Jhon Boys
'Char. Fotherbye
'Martin Fotherby
'John Layfeilds
'Jo. Roffens
'George Montaigne (sic)
'Robt. Abbott
'Henr. Hickman
'John Dix
'Willm. FFerrand.'
[57] For the use of this document the author is indebted to the Keeper of the Archives, Rev. J. Griffiths, M.A.
[58] Probably the son of the John Haryson who signs above.
A.D. 1613.
The death of the Founder occurred on Jan. 28, after long suffering from stone, dropsy, and scurvy, for which he is said to have been mis-treated by a Dr. Hen. Atkins[59]. Two volumes of elegiac verses were thereupon issued by the University, of which one (Bodleiomnema) was written entirely by members of Merton College; the other (Justa Funebria Ptolemæi Oxoniensis) by members of the University in general. In the latter collection are Latin verses by Laud, then President of St. John's, and Greek verses by Isaac Casaubon. Bodley was buried (according to his desire in his will) in the chapel of his old College, Merton, on March 29, with all the state of a public funeral. He bequeathed the greater part of his property for the building of the east wing of the Library and the completion of the Schools, appointing Sir John Bennett and Mr. William Hakewill his executors. The former, however, proved in some measure an unfaithful steward. When prosecuted in Parliament in 1621, for gross bribery in his office as Judge of the Prerogative Court, some of Bodley's money was still remaining in his hands, and was mentioned in the charges brought against him. For the due payment of a portion of this, by annual instalments of £150, the University, on June 28, 1624, accepted four bonds from him, witnessed by Thomas Coventreye, Matthew Bennet, and Henry Wigmore; only one of these appears to have been paid off, leaving an unpaid deficit of £450[60]. The entry of this debt is carried on, together with the loan made to King Charles I in 1642, in the Library accounts[61], from year to year up to 1782, when by order of the Curators the entries were discontinued. In the notice of the Library contributed (as it is said) by Dr. Hudson to Ayliffe's Ancient and Present State of Oxford (vol. i. p. 460), it is stated that the Library estate falls miserably short by reason of 'the fraud of his [Bodley's] executor, the loan of a great sum of money to Charles I in his distress, and by the fire of London,' that event, doubtless, necessitating the rebuilding of the houses in Distaff Lane.
Bodley was charged by some of his contemporaries, and apparently with some justice, with sacrificing in his will the claims of relatives and friends too much to the interests of the Library. One Mr. John Chamberlain, a friend of Bodley, whose gossiping letters to Sir Dudley Carleton, Alice Carleton, and others, are preserved in the State Paper Office, does not spare his accusations on this head. In a letter dated Feb. 4, 1613, he says that Bodley has left legacies to great people, £7000 to the Library, and £200 to Merton College, but little to his brothers, his old servants, his friends, or the children of his wife, by whom he had all his wealth[62]. In another, dated June 23, 1613, he remarks that the executors cannot excuse Bodley of unthankfulness to many of his relatives and friends, he being 'so drunk with the applause and vanitie of his librarie that he made no conscience to rob Peter to pay Paul[63].' Some inferential corroboration of this is afforded by the following curious paper preserved among Rawlinson's gatherings (now in a vol. numbered Rawl. MS. Miscell., 1203), being no other than a petition for relief addressed by the grand-nephew and grand-niece of Bodley in the year 1712 (as appears from the Library accounts) to the Heads of Houses and Curators of the Library, who appear both officially and individually to have been very parsimonious in their response:—
'To the Worshipful Mr. Vice-Chancellor and to all heads and governors of Colleges and Halls within the famous University of Oxon.
'The humble petition of William Snoshill