Thomas, Lord Fairfax, to whose care the Library had been indebted for
preservation in 1646, bequeathed to it on his decease, in November,
1671, twenty-eight very valuable MSS., including several early English
books (Chaucer, Gower, Wickliffe's Bible, &c.) and works relating to the
history of England, Scotland (Elphinston[129]), and Ireland (Keating).
But besides these, he gave that invaluable collection of genealogical
MSS. known to all pedigree-hunters by the name of their indefatigable
compiler, Roger Dodsworth, to whom he had allowed an annuity of £40
during his life, in order to enable him the better to prosecute his
researches. This collection numbers 161 volumes (bound in 86) in folio
and quarto[130], and consists of extracts bearing chiefly on the family
and ecclesiastical history of Yorkshire and the North of England, with
an innumerable mass of pedigrees, from all the authentic records within
Dodsworth's reach, including many which were destroyed when the Tower of
St. Mary, at York, was blown up during the siege of that city in June,
1644. He appears to have commenced this wonderful series of notes about
the year 1618, and not to have ceased before 1652, dying, in the
seventieth year of his age, in August, 1654. Besides the very full
catalogue of his MSS. which is given by Bernard (pp. 187-233), an
extremely useful and original synopsis of their contents, prefaced with
an account of Dodsworth's life and labours, and drawn up by Mr. Joseph
Hunter, is to be found in the Report of the Record Commission for 1837;
which was reprinted by Mr. Hunter, in an octavo volume, in 1838,
together with a list of the contents of the Red Book of the Exchequer,
and a Catalogue of the MSS. in Lincoln's Inn. After the MSS. were
brought to the Library, they became in some way exposed to the damp,
'and were in danger of being spoiled by a wet season.' Fortunately the
danger was perceived by Ant. à Wood, who obtained leave of the
Vice-Chancellor to dry them, which he accomplished by spreading them out
in the sun upon the leads of the Schools' quadrangle. This cost him a
month's labour, which, he says, he underwent with pleasure out of
respect to the memory of Dodsworth, and care to preserve whatever might
advantage the commonwealth of learning. The MSS. to this day give
abundant proof, by their stains and tender condition, that, had it not
been for Wood's unselfish labour, they would probably soon have
perished. Some part of the collection appears to have been sent to the
Library as late as 1684, for in the accounts of that year there is an
entry of 4_s._ 10_d._ as having been paid for the 'carriage of
Dodsworth's MSS.'
An interesting volume, written by the donor of these MSS., Fairfax, and
entitled by him 'The Employment of my Solitude,' being metrical versions
of the Psalms, with other poems, was bought, in 1858, for £36 10_s._, at
the sale of the library of Dr. Bliss, who had purchased it at the Duke
of Sussex's sale. It is described in Archdeacon Cotton's List of Bibles.
[129] A transcript of Elphinston's Chronicle is to be found among the
Jones MSS.
[130] No. 20 is a volume of Camden's Collections, formerly in the Cotton
Library, Julius B. x., from whence Dodsworth must have borrowed it, and
whither, with an obliviousness too common in book-borrowers, he must
have forgotten to return it. And No. 161 was given to the Library by Mr.
Fras. Drake, the historian of York, in 1736.