Mary Louisa Armitt (1851–1911) by Sophia Armitt The Armitt Trust Collection
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Armitt, Mary Louisa (1851–1911), author and founder of the Armitt Library, Ambleside, was born at 19 Melbourne Terrace, Salford, Lancashire, on 24 September 1851. She was the youngest of three daughters of William Armitt (1815–1867), an impecunious assistant overseer who valued learning, and his wife, ...
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Aylesbury, Sir Thomas, baronet (1579/80–1658), patron of mathematics, was born probably in early 1580, possibly in London, where some of his siblings were later baptized at St Andrew's, Holborn. He was the second son among at least eight children of William Aylesbury (...
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Blount, Charles, fifth Baron Mountjoy (1516–1544), courtier and patron of learning, was the eldest son of William Blount, fourth Baron Mountjoy (c. 1478–1534), and his third wife, Alice Brown, née Kebel (or Keble; d. 1521). Charles was born on 28 June 1516 in ...
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Sir Thomas Bodley (1545–1613) by unknown artist © Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
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W. H. Clennell
Bodley, Sir Thomas (1545–1613), scholar, diplomat, and founder of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was born on 2 March 1545 in a house on the corner of High Street and Gandy Street, Exeter, the eldest son of John Bodley (c. 1520–1591), religious radical and publisher, of ...
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Boswell, Sir William (d. 1650), diplomat and patron of learning, was born in Suffolk. He matriculated from Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1600, graduating BA in 1604, becoming a fellow in 1606, and proceeding MA in 1607; he was incorporated at Oxford in 1608. In December 1614 he was granted a pass to travel abroad for three years but he remained absent from ...
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Elizabeth Christiana Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire (1757–1824) by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1787 Chatsworth House. Photograph: Photographic Survey, Courtauld Institute of Art, London
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Cavendish [née Hervey; other married name Foster], Elizabeth Christiana, duchess of Devonshire (1757–1824), society hostess and patron of the arts, was the middle daughter of Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth earl of Bristol (1730–1803), and his wife, Elizabeth Davers (1730–1800), and was known for most her life as ...
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Peter Sherlock
Cranston, Andrew (d. 1708), creator of a public library, was born in the late 1650s in Scotland to unknown parents. He was perhaps connected to the lords Cranstoun, for the descendants of his only known brother, James, assumed the same coat of arms. There is a volume in his library inscribed to him from ...
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Edwards, Arthur (d. 1743), benefactor, was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 17 November 1725. Nothing is known of his parentage and upbringing, though his will refers to 'my brothers and sisters'. Little is known about his life, other than that he reached the rank of first major of the second troop of ...
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Jonathan R. Topham
Egerton, Francis Henry, eighth earl of Bridgewater (1756–1829), collector of manuscripts and patron of learning, was born on 11 November 1756, probably in London, the youngest of the three surviving children of John Egerton (1721–1787), bishop of Durham, and his first wife, Lady Anna Sophia de Grey (...
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Lucilla Burn and Suzanne Reynolds
Fitzwilliam, Richard, seventh Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745–1816), collector, connoisseur, and museum founder, was born on 1 August 1745 in Richmond, Surrey, the son of Richard Fitzwilliam, sixth Viscount Fitzwilliam (d. 1776), and his wife Catherine Decker (c.1710–1786), eldest daughter of the Dutch-born merchant and political economist, ...
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Heywood, James (1810–1897), politician, university reformer, and philanthropist, was born in Everton, Liverpool, on 28 May 1810, the fifth son of Nathaniel Heywood, a partner in the Manchester bank of Benjamin Heywood & Sons, and his wife, Ann, daughter of Thomas Percival, MD FRS...
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Nigel Ramsay
Holdingham [Haldingham], Richard of (d. 1278
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Hope, Henry Thomas (1808–1862), patron of the arts and politician, was born in London, probably in Duchess Street, on 30 April 1808, eldest of the three sons of Thomas Hope (1769–1831), of the Amsterdam banking family, and his wife, Louisa (d. 1851)...
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Murray C. T. Simpson
Kirkwood, James (b. c. 1650, d. in or after 1709), clergyman and advocate of parochial libraries, was born in or near Dunbar. His schooling took place there, and from 1666 he studied at Edinburgh University, where he graduated MA in 1670. Scott's Fasti ecclesiae Scoticanae...
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Matthew [née Barlow; other married name Parker], Frances (1550/51–1629), benefactor, was the fourth daughter of William Barlow (d. 1568), at that time bishop of Bath and Wells, and Agatha Wellesbourne, a former nun; William Barlow (1544–1625) was her brother, and the merchant and explorer, ...
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David J. Crankshaw and Alexandra Gillespie
Parker, Matthew (1504–1575), archbishop of Canterbury and patron of scholarship, was born, according to his own account, in the parish of St Saviour, close to the heart of Norwich, on 6 August 1504. One of six children, he was born into armigerous families on both sides. His father, ...
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Maker: Remigius Hogenberg
Matthew Parker (1504–1575) by Remigius Hogenberg, 1572 © National Portrait Gallery, London
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