Dr. James has indexed
nearly two hundred donors to Christ Church alone. In
most cases the gifts are of one or a few books, but
occasionally collections of respectable size were received, as
when T. Sturey, senior, enriched the library with nearly sixty
books, when Thomas a Becket left over seventy, and when
Prior Henry Eastry left eighty volumes at his death. As
many or more donors to St. Augustine's are indexed. Here
also some of the donations were fairly large: for example,
Henry Belham and Henry Cokeryng gave nineteen books
each, a prior twenty-seven, a certain John of London eighty-
two, J. Mankael thirty-nine, Abbot Nicholaus sixteen,
Michael de Northgate twenty-four, Abbot Poucyn sixteen,
J. Preston twenty-three, a certain Abbot Thomas over a
hundred, and T. Wyvelesberghe thirty-one. Some sixty
persons are also indexed as donors to St. Martin's Priory,
Dover.[2]
[1] Chron. abb. Rameseiensis, 356.
[2] James, 535-544.
William de Carilef, bishop of Durham, endowed his
church with books and bequeathed some more at his death
(1095). John, bishop of Bath, bequeathed to the abbey
church his whole library and his decorated copies of the
Gospels (1160).
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