Austin, (Ethel) Winifred (1873–1918), pioneer of library services for blind people, was born on 7 October 1873 (not 1875, as her obituaries state) at 3 Lansdowne Place, Blackheath Hill, London, the tenth child of George Austin (1824/5–1887) and Mary Anne Jane Cullum Aldridge (...
Article
Article
Chetham, Humphrey (bap. 1580, d. 1653), financier and philanthropist, the sixth child of Henry Chetham (c.1540–1603) of Crumpsall Hall, near Manchester, and his wife, Jane (c.1542–1616), the daughter of Robert Wroe of Heaton, was born at Crumpsall Hall, and baptized at ...
Article
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 ...
Article
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 ...
Article
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...
Article
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, ...
