Two bookplates on the front fly-leaf of a tract on the Lord's supper from 1641. The first belongs to Henry Ellacombe, a pioneer of campanology, and the second to Thomas Brushfield, a specialist in lunacy, who pioneered relatively humane treatments for patients at Surrey County Asylum, including non-restraint.

The bookplate of Joshua Barnes, Greek scholar and antiquarian, which is to be found in two volumes in the Library. Barnes composed various works which blended classical and biblical scholarship, including Gerania, a new discovery of a little sort of people called pygmies (1675), before publishing editions of various classical texts and works on English history.

Evidence of the exchange of books as gifts between scholars is to be found in several volumes in St John's associated with Roger Ascham. These comprise four volumes given by Ascham, each bearing a dedicatory epistle of several pages in his fine handwriting, as well as one given to him. The volumes he gave were destined for three recipients. Two were given in 1554 to Cuthbert Tunstall (1474-1559), initially envoy to the Duke of Burgundy, and later Bishop of Durham, who survived the reigns and changing religious alliegances of four Tudor monarchs.

One of three volumes in St John's Library bound for the seventeenth century antiquary and collector Ralph Sheldon, who built up a fine library at his home in Warwickshire. Two of these were given by Richard Duffield, another by Hugh Wharton Gatty.

Bookplate of Joseph Smith, book collector, patron, and British Consul in Venice, from an edition of Madame Riccoboni's Recueil de pièces détachées (1765).

Gold-stamped arms of Tobias Rustat, from an edition of Silvestros Syropoulos' History of the Council of Florence in Greek, with parallel Latin text (1660).

Three volumes of an 18th-century catalogue of the collections of the Musei Capitolini in Rome bear this binding incorporating the arms of John Ker, 3rd Duke of Roxburghe. As well as being a courtier and friend of George III, Roxburghe was an obsessive book-collector, and has given his name to one of the most famous bibliographical societies, the Roxburghe Club.

Bookplate of the Lady Elizabeth Germain, courtier to Queen Anne and close friend of Jonathan Swift. After the death of her husband, Sir John Germain, she remained a widow and dedicated herself to maintaining his art collections, as well as entertaining the political classes.

Bookplate of Hugh Cecil Lowther, fifth Earl of Lonsdale. After his father's death Hugh became one of the richest men in England, with estates which included the Whitehaven collieries, and this enabled him to lead an ostentatious lifestyle, employing yellow-liveried footmen and a special train for his household. He also used his wealth to pursue his various sporting passions, including hunting, boxing (he became the first president of the National Sporting Club), horse-racing (as the first president of the International Horse Show at Olympia), and cars (being the first president of the AA).

A book label of William Morris, designer, author, and socialist, from his library at Kelmscott House. The text is an Icelandic edition of the Imitatio Christi (1676), which obviously had an Icelandic provenance, as the inscription "Sigurdur Biornsso[n] 175[?]" also appears in it.