Bequests and donations

While many items in the Library's special collections were bequeathed or donated by Masters, Fellows and members of St John's, bequests and donations have also been received from others wishing to support the College and its educational aims.  Details of some of the more significant or substantial gifts are included in the chronological index below.

If you would like to see any of the early printed books or manuscripts mentioned in the index, please contact the Special Collections Librarian (tel. 01223-339393).

Sixteenth Century

John Fisher (1513)

Mildred Cecil, Lady Burghley (1581)

Seventeenth Century

William Crashaw & Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton (1626)
Valentine Carey (1626)
Lord William Howard (1628)
Thomas Morton (1628-1639)
John Thompson (1629)
Henry Alvey (1630)
Robert Heath (1630)
Edward Benlowes (1631)
Ambrose Gilbert (1632)
Abdias Ashton (1633)
David Dolben (1633)
John Collins (1634)
Jeremiah Holt (1634)
William Wynne (1634)
Edward Lightfoot (1635)
Wolley Leigh (1635)

William Platt (1637)
Francis Dee (1638)
Timothy Hutton (1640)
Thomas Spell (1640?)
Richard Holdsworth (1644?)
Sir John Lambe (1646?)
Sir Thomas Dawes (1648)
John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln (1650)
Robert Metcalfe (1652)
John Hacket (ca. 1661)
Samuel Howlett (1671)
Sir Thomas Bendish (1674?)
John Carey, Earl of Dover (1677?)
Peter Gunning (1685)
Henry Paman (1695)

Eighteenth Century

Thomas Smoult (1707)
Humphrey Gower (1711)
Thomas Thurlin (1714)
Francis Roper (1719)
Charles Otway (1721)
Robert Jenkin (1721?)
Richard Berry (1723?)

Matthew Prior (1722)
Robert Grove (1726?)
Roger Kay (1732)
Thomas Baker (1739-40)
Domenico Ferrari (1744)
John Newcome (1765)

Nineteenth Century

Thomas Gisborne (1804)
Soulden Lawrence (1814)
Sir Isaac Pennington (1817)
James Wood (1839)
Christopher Stannard (1851)

Richard Duffield (1863)
Miles Bland (1882)
John Couch Adams (1892)
Isaac Todhunter (1896)
J.E.B. Mayor (1890s-1910)

Twentieth Century

Richard Pendlebury (1902)
Ralph Hare Griffin (1941)
Hugh Wharton Gatty (1948)

George Udny Yule (1951)
Rollo Brice-Smith (1964)