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 of East Lockinge in the
county of Berks, labourer, and of Jane the wife of Thomas Hatton
of Childrey in the county aforesaid, labourer, sister of the
said William Snoshill,
'Humbly sheweth,
'That your Petitioners being the grand-children of the sister of Sir
Thomas Bodley, the munificent founder of the Bodleian Library in
your University, being now reduc'd to a poor and low estate, do with
all humility make bold to represent their distrest condition to your
consideration, hoping that out of your tender pity and
commiseration, and that regard you have for the pious memory of so
great a benefactor to your University, to whom your poor Petitioners
are so nearly allied, you will be pleas'd to consider them as real
objects of your charity and compassion, and thereby you will lay an
eternal obligation on them of praying for your present and future
happiness.
'William Snoshill
'Jane Hatton.
'We, whose names are subscribed to this Petition, are well satisfied
of the truth thereof.
'Thomas Paris, rector of Childrey
'John Holmes
'John Bell, vic. of Sparsholt
'John Aldworth, rector of East Lockinge
'Ralph Kedden, M.A., vicar of Denchworth, Berks.
'(_Mem._) The Curators gave the Petitioners the sum of four pounds
out of Sir Thomas Bodley's chest. Dr. Altham, Hebrew professor, and
Dr. Hudson, Library-keeper, gave, each of them, ten shillings.'
An alphabetical catalogue was prepared in this year by James, but was
not printed. The MS, in two small hand-books, remains in the Library. It
was ordered by the Curators, at the Visitation on Nov. 13, that 6_s._
8_d._ be paid quarterly to the Bedel of the Stationers' Company as a
gratuity for his trouble. MSS. were received from Edw. James, B.D., who
had been a contributor already in the year 1601.
[59] _Calendar of State Papers_, 1611-18, p. 137.
[60] A full account of Bennet's defalcations is given by B. Twyne, from
the University Registers, in vol. vi. (pp. 120-4) of his _Collectanea_,
now in the Univ. Archives. See also _Parliam. Hist._ vol. v. p. 462.
[61] These accounts, as now preserved, unfortunately only commence at
the year 1653, and there is a hiatus from 1661 to 1676, both inclusive.
[62] _Calendar of State Papers_, 1611-18, p. 169.
[63] _Ibid._ p. 187.