Although Charles Otway gave one of the largest collections to the Library very little is known about him. He was born in Fareham, Hampshire, son of Sir John Otway, who was at various times a Fellow of St John's, Vice-Chancellor of the County Palatine of Lancaster and Chancellor of Durham, and who gave £100 for the building of Third Court at St John's. Charles attended Sedbergh School in Cumbria, was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1671, studied at St John's and gained his BA in 1674-5. His MA followed in 1678, and his LL.D. in 1688.

Originating from County Durham, Francis Roper came to St John's in 1658, and, although he appears to have spent some time at Corpus Christi College in Oxford, graduated BA in 1662-3, MA in 1666, and BD in 1673. He became a Fellow of St John's, and held several Church preferments, including deacon of Peterborough and canon of Ely. Like Thomas Baker he was deprived of his fellowship as a non-juror, but died very soon afterwards.

Roper's bequest to the Library

Thomas Thurlin graduated BA from St John's in 1654-5, before proceeding MA and BD, and becoming a Fellow. He was President of the College for thirty years and Rector of Gaywood in Norfolk.

Thurlin's bequest

Thurlin left about £300 to the College Library, and this appears to have been used to purchase fairly contemporary texts of an historical nature.

Provenance markings

The books bought with Thurlin's money simply bear a book label detailing his bequest. Translated it reads:

Humphrey Gower was born in Herefordshire and graduated from St John's in 1659. He then proceeded MA, BD, DD, and was elected to the Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity. Over the course of his career he was also rector of a number of parishes in counties as far apart as Dorset and Norfolk, as well as prebendary of Ely. Peter Gunning made him Master of Jesus College in 1679, and later that year he became Master of St John's.

Thomas Smoult graduated BA from St John's in 1654 and became a Fellow in 1664. He proceeded BD in 1666 and DD in 1684. Smoult was the first Professor of Moral Theology at Cambridge, and held various livings in Hertfordshire and Kent. From 1697 until his death he was Royal Chaplain.

Smoult's bequest to the Library

Born to missionary parents in Ceylon, Mayor entered St John's in 1844, graduated third classic in 1848, and became a Fellow in 1849. For four years he was a master at Marlborough College, during which time he prepared the work on which his scholarly reputation rests, his edition of Juvenal's Satires. Unhappy at Marlborough, he returned to St John's in 1853 and remained there for the rest of his life. Here he devoted himself to his literary, antiquarian and classical interests, and in particular to the study of Cambridge history.

Despite being thought of as 'backward' as a child, Isaac Todhunter had a highly successful academic career. In 1842 he graduated from University College London, acquiting himself with distinction in mathematics, Greek and Hebrew. In 1844 he was admitted at St John's, and four years later graduated senior wrangler and won the first Smith's prize. A fellowship followed in 1849.

John Couch Adams entered St John's in 1839. At the end of his second year he decided to investigate the irregularities in the motion of Uranus in order to discover if they were due to the action of an unknown planet beyond it. Having graduated senior wrangler in 1843, and won a fellowship, Adams took up the problem in earnest. By October 1843, aged just 24, Adams had arrived at a solution of the inverse perturbation problem and although his first result was approximate, it convinced him that the disturbances of Uranus were due to an undiscovered planet.

Miles Bland studied mathematics at St John's, graduating in 1808 as second wrangler and Smith's prizeman. He was elected to a fellowship in the same year, and held various teaching positions in the College culminating in public examiner. He was also ordained, eventually becoming prebendary of Wells Cathedral in 1826. He published numerous popular mathematical textbooks including Algebraical problems.

Richard Duffield gained his BA from St John's in 1808, and his BD in 1819. He pursued a career in the Church, becoming Vicar of Impington in Cambridgeshire and later Rector of Frating with Thorington in Essex.