Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T13:30:54.620Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Libraries for the parish: individual donors and charitable societies

from PART ONE - THE EXPANSION OF BOOK COLLECTIONS 1640–1750

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
W. M. Jacob
Edited by
Giles Mandelbrote  and
K. A. Manley
Giles Mandelbrote
Affiliation:
British Library, London
K. A. Manley
Affiliation:
University of London
Get access

Summary

By the 1680s many English and Welsh parish churches had small collections of books, for reference, often chained to a book press or desk, for security. These are usually designated ‘desk libraries’ to distinguish them from slightly larger collections, designated ‘parochial libraries’. The term ‘parochial library’ came into use in the last decade of the seventeenth century, but is imprecise. In attempting to define and categorise libraries in parishes Kelly distinguished between ‘parochial libraries’ under the control of the ‘parochial authority’ and ‘parish libraries’ designed for the use of the inhabitants, and Canon Fitch suggested ‘parochial library’ should be applied to libraries in parish churches or parsonage houses, reserved, by the terms of a gift or bequest, for exclusive use by clergy. Fitch distinguished three categories of library: personal libraries bequeathed for the use of incumbents of parishes in perpetuity, usually housed in the parsonage house; libraries built up by donations, housed in churches; and libraries presented to a parish. For most ‘parochial libraries’ the distinctions are unclear. They were often also town, school or deanery libraries. Sometimes they were intended for reference only, or only for the use of the parish clergy; sometimes borrowing, by a restricted constituency, was permitted. They were almost always formally established by trust deed, bequest or formal rules.

In 1680 sixty-nine parochial libraries are recorded in England and Wales, two ‘town’ libraries in Scotland, at Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and none in Ireland. By 1760, 267 libraries are recorded in England, thirty-seven in Wales, eighteen on the Isle of Man and one in Ireland, and seventy-seven libraries had been distributed to Scottish parishes and presbyteries. Why was there such a burst of activity in providing books for parishes in the British Isles?

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Libraries in Britain and Ireland , pp. 65 - 82
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Clement, M. (ed.), Correspondence and minutes of the SPCK relating to Wales 1699–1740 (Cardiff, 1952)Google Scholar
Cowie, L. W., Henry Newman: an American in London 1708–1743 (London, 1956).Google Scholar
Cressy, D., Literacy and the social order: reading and writing in Tudor and Stuart England (Cambridge, 1980).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edwards, E.Memoirs of libraries, 2 vols. (London, 1859).Google Scholar
Feather, J.The provincial book trade in eighteenth century England (Cambridge, 1985).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, J. P.The parochial libraries of Bishop Wilson (Douglas, 1975).Google Scholar
Fitch, J., ‘Historical introduction’, in Suffolk parochial libraries: a catalogue (London, 1977).Google Scholar
Jacob, W. M., Lay people and religion in the early eighteenth century (Cambridge, 1997).Google Scholar
Kaufman, P.Libraries and their users (London, 1969) [reprints in part his articles cited here].Google Scholar
Kelly, T., ‘Historical introduction’, in Catalogue of books from parochial libraries in Shropshire (London, 1971).Google Scholar
Kelly, T.Early public libraries: a history of public libraries in Great Britain before 1850 (London, 1966).Google Scholar
Latimer, J., The annals of Bristol in the eighteenth century (Bristol, 1893).Google Scholar
Laugher, C. T., Thomas Bray’s grand design: libraries of the Church of England in America 1695–1785 (Chicago, 1973).Google Scholar
Mackerell, B., The history and antiquities of the flourishing Corporation of King’s Lynn (London, 1738)Google Scholar
Manley, K. A. ‘The S. P. C. K. and English book clubs before 1720’, Bodleian Library Record 13 (1989).Google Scholar
McCarthy, M., and Whelan, R.. Ancient bestsellers: Archbishop Marsh’s library, Dublin (Dublin, 1989).Google Scholar
Minto, J., A history of the public library movement in Great Britain and Ireland (London, 1932).Google Scholar
Mountney, F. H.All Saints Church Hereford: the chained library (Hereford, 1962).Google Scholar
Park, B. M., The Bishop White library of Newark parish church (Newark, 1999).Google Scholar
Perkin, M. (ed.). A directory of the parochial libraries of the Church of England and the Church in Wales, rev. edn (London, 2004).Google Scholar
Petchey, W. J.The intentions of Thomas Plume (Maldon, 1985).Google Scholar
Roth, M., ‘The Revd Andrew Cranston’, in Taylor, A. (ed.), People of Reigate at St Mary’s from 1500–1930 (Reigate, 1988).Google Scholar
Tallon, M.Church of Ireland diocesan libraries (Dublin, 1959).Google Scholar
Thompson, H. P.Thomas Bray (London, 1954).Google Scholar
Walsh, J., Haydon, C. and Taylor, S. (eds.), The Church of England c.1689–c.1833 (Cambridge, 1993).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, D. ‘The use and abuse of a pious intention: changing attitudes to parochial libraries’, in Library Association Study School: proceedings, Nottingham, 1979 (London, 1980).Google Scholar
Yates, N. ‘The parochial library of All Saints Maidstone and other Kentish parochial libraries’, Archaeologia Cantiana 99 (1983).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×