On 2nd March 1545, Thomas Bodley was born at what is now 229 High Street on the corner with Gandy Street in Exeter city centre. The property had recently been leased to his father John Bodley by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter Cathedral and although the house has been rebuilt more than once since this period, a wall plague marks the spot. Sir Thomas Bodley is best remembered today for rescuing the Bodleian Library in Oxford which was later renamed after him.
Thomas’s father was a wealthy Protestant merchant and at a young age Thomas was taken to Geneva to evade religious persecution. Upon returning to England, he studied at Oxford University and matriculated at Magdalen College. Thomas was subsequently a fellow at Merton College before becoming a diplomat in the court of Queen Elizabeth.
After retiring from public life in 1597, he decided to “set up my staff at the library door in Oxon; being thoroughly persuaded … I could not busy myself to better purposes, than by reducing that place (which then in every part lay ruined and waste) to the public use of students.” The library had not always been in this condition. Humphry, Duke of Gloucester (and younger brother of King Henry V) had given the University his priceless collection of over 280 manuscripts. This resulted in the construction of a library which opened in 1488. However the library only lasted 60 years; it suffered during the Reformation with all the books removed (to purge any trace of Catholicism) and some burnt. The University was not a wealthy institution and did not have the resources to build up a new collection.
On the other hand, Thomas Bodley (above) had married Ann Ball, the rich widow of a merchant from Totnes who had made his fortune in the pilchard business. As a result, Thomas could spend a significant amount of money on the library and brought in books from many places, including roughly eighty volumes sold to him by the Dean and Chapter of Exeter. He was not an admirer of what he called “baggage books” including almanacs, plays, and other “unworthy matters”. Fortunately, they were still accepted into the library and included such items as Shakespeare’s First Folio. He did, however, insist upon acquiring books in non-European languages, including Asian and Hebrew. The library was refurbished to house a collection of approximately 2,500 books and opened to readers on 8th November 1602.
In 1610, Thomas Bodley also set up the precursor to today’s legal deposit agreements when he arranged for the Stationers’ Company of London to send the Bodleian a copy of every new book printed. He was knighted on 18th April 1604 and upon his death in 1613 a large portion of his fortune was left to the library. He is buried in the chapel of Merton College.
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