John also seems to have given books as well as a room to house them.[328] An old view of the church, taken before the great fire which destroyed the town in 1694, shows the south porch surmounted with his library, as then standing; but this room was destroyed in the fire, and it seems certain the books were burnt. The present library was founded in 1701, and includes no part of the original collection.[329]
Bequests to churches of service books, such as that to the church of St. Mary, Castle-gate, York (1394), were numerous; they may be set apart with bequests of vestments, plate, and money. Some bequests have a different character. A chancellor of York, Thomas de Farnylaw, leaves books, bound and unbound, to the Vicar of Waghen; a volume of sermons and a “quire” to the church of Embleton; and a Bible and Concordance to be chained in the north porch of St. Nicholas’ Church, Newcastle, “for common use, for the good of the soul of his lord William of Middleton” (1378). A chaplain leaves service books, _Speculum Ecclesiae_, and the Gospels in English to Holy Trinity Church, Goodramgate, York (1394). A Bristol merchant bequeaths two books on canon law to St. Mary Redcliffe Church, there to be preserved for the use of the vicar and chaplains (1416). In the same year a Canon of York enriches Beverley Church with all his books of canon and civil law. Books were also chained in the church of St. Mary of Oxford. Bishop Lyndwood of St. David’s bequeaths a copy of his digest of the synodal constitutions of the province of Canterbury for chaining in St. Stephen’s Chapel, “to serve as a standard for future editions” (1443). Richard Browne, or Cordone, who has left books to Wells, reserves for the parish church of Naas in Ireland a _Catholicon_ and other manuscripts (1452). To Boston Church a rector of Kirkby Ravensworth bequeaths several books, but one named John Bosbery was to have the use of them for life: among the gifts was _Polichronicon_ (1457). Canon Nicholas Holme leaves _Pupilla Oculi_ to the parish church of Redmarshall (1458). A chaplain bequeaths one book to St. Mary’s Church, Bolton, another to St. Wilfrid’s Church, Brensall in Craven, and a third to All Saints’ Church, Peseholme, York (1466). Sir Richard Willoughby orders church books and a _Crede mihi_ to be given to Woollaton Parish Church (1469). Robert Est, possibly a chantry-priest in York Minster, enriches the parish church of his native Lincoln village, Brigsley, with a copy of _Legends of the Saints_, _Speculum Christiani_, _Gesta Romanorum cum aliis fabulis Isopi et multis narrationibus_, and a Psalter (1474-75). To the church of St. Mary’s, Nottingham, the vicar leaves a _Golden Legend_, a _Polichronicon_, besides _Pupilla Oculi_, and a portiforium to Wragby Church, and a missal to Snenton Church (1476). Sir Thomas Lyttleton befriends King’s Norton Church by leaving it a Latin-English dictionary, and that of Halesowen in Worcestershire by leaving a _Catholicon_, the _Constitutiones Provinciales_ (possibly Lyndwood’s digest, the _Provinciale_), and the _Gesta Romanorum_ (1481). A man of Leicester was sued by the church wardens of the parish church of Welford, in the county of Leicester, on a charge of having taken away certain books belonging to the church and sold them (1490). The vicar of Ruddington bequeaths three books, “ad tenendum et ligandum cum cathena ferrea in quadam sede in capella B. M. de Rodington” (1491). Thomas Rotherham, benefactor of Cambridge University Library, gave to the church of Rochester ten pounds for building a library (1500). To Wetheringsett Church a chaplain of Bury carefully reserves “a book called Fasiculus Mors [_Fasciculus morum_], to lye in the chauncell, for priests to occupye ther tyme when it shall please them, praying them to have my soule in remembraunce as it shall please them of their charite” (1519).[330]