Ravanella before giuen to the library by y^e said S^r Jos. Paine.”

In the Vellum Book under date Dec. 12th, 1659, are entered 29 volumes as a gift from Thomasine Brooke, “Widow & Relict of W^m Brooke, Gent.”  These were evidently purchased with a donation of £20, as under the same date in the Minute Book is the following: “Mr. Whitefoot acknowledged himself to have received of M^rs Brooke wid. to the use of the library to bee laid out uppon bookes by ye Consent of ye minrs. the summe of twenty pounds.”

Sir Thomas Browne, who made Norwich his home from 1637, gave in 1666 eight volumes of Justus Lipsius’ Works, (Antwerp, 1606-17), and under the entry recording this gift, which describes the donor as “Thomas Browne, Med: Professor”, has been written in a different hand, “Opera sua, viz. Religio Medicj, Vulgar Errors, &c.”  (A reproduction of the page in the Vellum Book recording Browne’s gift faces page 46.)  The latter volume was evidently a copy of his “Pseudodoxia Epidemica . . . together with the Religio Medici,” sixth edition, (London, 1672), which is still in the Library.

Another eminent benefactor was Thomas Tenison, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1694, and is noteworthy

to librarians as having established a public library in his parish of St. Martins-in-the-Fields, London, in 1695.  Tenison was educated at the Norwich Free School, and in 1674 he was chosen “upper minister” of St. Peter Mancroft, Norwich, having been previously preacher at that Church.  He was admitted to the use of the City Library on February 9th, 1673, and on March 2nd, 1674 and April 6th, 1675, he gave the following five volumes: Georgius Codinus’ “De Officijs et Officialibus Magnæ Ecclesiæ et Aulæ Constantinopolitanæ” (Paris, 1625); Edward Herbert’s “De religione gentilium” (Amsterdam, 1663); Peter Heylyn’s “Historia Quinqu-Articularis” (London, 1660); Archbishop James Ussher’s “Chronologia sacra” (Oxford, 1660); and the “Racovian Catechism,” which is entered in the 1732 catalogue as “Moscorrow’s Catechism.”

Nathaniel Cock, described as a Merchant of London, but who was doubtless connected with the county, is credited with a donation of 33 volumes in 1674.  These volumes were evidently purchased with the legacy of £20 which Edmund Cock, his executor, paid to the Library-Keeper.  This legacy is mentioned in the Minute Book, and also by Blomefield, [22] who states that he was the brother of Edmund Cocke, and that he also “gave the city chamberlain 100^l, to be freely lent to five honest poor weavers, housekeepers and freemen, without interest, they giving security for the repayment at three years end.”

In 1676, the year of the death of Edward Reynolds, Bishop of Norwich, the Vellum Book records a donation from him of 24 volumes.  These books, however, were probably purchased with a legacy, as in the Assembly Book, 21st Sept., 1676, it is stated that the Clavors [Keepers of City Chest] to pay Rob^t Bendish Esq. £20 to be p^d to M^r John Whitefoot senr. to buy bookes for City Library according to will of Edward [Reynolds] late Bp. of Norwich.

Dean Humphrey Prideaux, the orientalist, was another distinguished benefactor.  In August, 1681, he was installed as a Prebendary of Norwich, and in the following March he gave a copy of his edition of two tracts by Maimonides which he published with the title “De jure pauperis et peregrini apud Judæos” (1679), “and other money [£1] from many others

received” with which were purchased Joannes Caspar Suicerus’ “Thesaurus Ecclesiasticus,” 2 vols. (Amsterdam, 1682), and J. J. Hoffman’s “Lexicon Universale Historico-Geographico-Chronologico-Poetico-Philologicum,” 2 vols. (Basel, 1677).  When Dean of Norwich he gave a copy of the two works upon which his literary fame rests, “Life of Mahomet” and “The Old and New Testament Connected,” 2 vols. (1716-18), and also his “Validity of the Orders of the Church of England,” and “The Original and Right of Tithes,” (Norwich, 1710).

Three citizens and Aldermen of Norwich gave donations of money in 1678 amounting to £11, with which ten volumes were purchased: Augustine Briggs £5, Thomas Wisse £3, and Bernard Church £3.

In 1700 William Adamson, Rector of St. John’s Maddermarket, Norwich, who was buried therein in 1707, “gave to this Library three shelves full of books, viz. Classis 17, 18, and 19, the first in Folio, the Second in quarto, the third in Octavo, and are Specifyed in the Catalogue of the Library.”  The total number of the books assigned to him in the 1732 catalogue is 118 vols.

In 1706 John Moore, Bishop of Norwich “gave to this Library Eusebij, Socratis, Sozomeni, Theodoriti, & Evagrij Hist. Ecclesiast. in 3 vol., Paris, 1678,” and Thomas Tanner, who had been made Chancellor of the Norwich Diocese in 1701, gave a copy of La Bigne’s “Sacræ Bibliothecæ Sanctorum Patrum,” 5 vols. (Paris, 1589).  Tanner also gave a large donation in 1726 which was thus recorded: “Thomas Tanner, S.T.P. and Chancellor of the Diocess of Norwich This year added more than an Hundred Books to those which he had formerly Given to this Publick Library; Which are particularly inserted in the Catalogue, with his Name before each Book.”  Possibly some of the books he gave were duplicates and were exchanged for others, as the 1732 Catalogue credits him with only 92 vols.

During the years 1707 to 1709 several Fellows of Trinity and other Cambridge Colleges gave donations of books (See List of Donors at the end of Part I., pp. 52-56).  The Minute Book records that on August 5th, 1707 “was brought into the Library by Mr. Reddington, Fellow of Trinity College, in Cambridge,

these following books being the gift of several persons of the said college, as here follows.”  These donations, numbering 28 volumes, were the gift of twelve Fellows, and may have been the result of an organised effort by Reddington to increase the Library.  John Reddington was Rector of St. Edmund, Norwich, 1712, Rector of Rackheath, 1711-39, and of Hethel, 1737-39, and master of Norwich Grammar School from 1732 to 1737.  He died in 1739, aged 57.  In 1708 the Minute Book states that on Sept. 6th Mr. Reddington brought in five books the gift of five Fellows of Trinity College; and on Oct. 4, Mr. Brett brought in 8 volumes the gift of John Lightwin, the President of Caius College, and four other Cambridge men.

Benjamin Mackerell, described as “of the City of Norwich, Gent.”, gave two volumes in 1716, and 13 volumes in 1731, when he held the office of Library Keeper.

John Jermy was stated in 1729 to “have sent & Given to this Library several Law Books and others; which are particularly inserted in the Catalogue, with his Name before Each Book.”  In 1733 he gave forty books, and in 1737 fourteen books.  In the 1732 Catalogue he is credited with 67 volumes.

Edmund Prideaux, the son of Dean Prideaux, in 1730 “gave to this Library more than Threescore Books which are all of them inserted in the Catalogue with his Name before each Book.”  In the 1732 Catalogue only 49 volumes are shown to have been given by him.

The last entry in the Vellum Book records a gift from Robert Nash, Chancellor of the Diocese of Norwich, of a copy of “A Defence of Natural and Revealed Religion: being an abridgment of the Sermons preached at the Lecture founded by the Hon. R. Boyle,” 4 vols. (London, 1737), by Gilbert Burnet,