Thomas Spell gained his BA from St John's in 1602/3, his MA in 1606, and became BD in 1614. He was a Fellow from 1605 until his death. In 1612, the same year that he was made Taxor, he was ordained at Peterborough, and appears to have been Rector at Scraptoft in Leicestershire. While a senior Fellow of the College he helped oversee the building of the Old Library at St John's.

Spell's gift to the Library

Spell left fifty pounds to the Library, which appears to have been chiefly used to purchase a range of theological works.

Timothy Hutton gained his BA from St John's in 1618/19, his MA in 1622, and became BD in 1630. He was a Fellow from 1622. Ordained deacon at Peterborough in 1627, he was Rector of Chelsworth in Suffolk from 1633 until his death.

Hutton's bequest to the Library

Hutton left twenty pounds to the Library, and volumes containing over sixty items bear his book label. These are a mixture of 16th-century theological and classical texts.

Provenance markings

Francis Dee graduated from St John's in 1600, gained his MA in 1603, and was elected to a Fellowship. He was ordained in 1602 and later proceeded BD and DD. He held various clerical positions including the chancellorship of Salisbury Cathedral, a chaplaincy to the English Ambassador to Paris, and the deanery of Chichester. From 1634 he was Bishop of Peterborough, and associated himself very closely with Laud's reforms, in particular those regarding altars. These were very unpopular but Dee died before the repercussions were felt.

William Platt matriculated from St John's in 1609, and pursued a legal career, being admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1612, and called to the Bar in 1619. He was a notable benefactor to his old college, and on his death left large amounts of property in London, and funds for scholarships.

Wolley Leigh attended Queen's College in Oxford from 1631. He lived in Thorpe, Surrey, but the precise nature of his relationship with St John's is unknown.

Leigh's gift to the Library

Edward Lightfoot gained his BA in 1584 and his MA in 1588. Little else is known about him.

Bequest to the Library

Lightfoot apparently left his whole library to St John's and over 30 volumes appear to have come from him. These consist chiefly of 16th-century classical editions, but also cover a range of other subjects including mathematics, agriculture, and alchemy. Several of the volumes given by Lightfoot also bear 16th-century blind-tooled bindings, one by Garrett Godfrey.

Provenance markings

The Wynn (or Gwynn) family of north Wales were well connected to St John's in the early 17th century. Both Robert Wynne, and his younger brother William, attended the College. Their father, Sir John, a baronet, landowner and antiquary, was one of the major sponsors of John Williams during his early career.

Jeremiah Holt gained his BA from St John's in 1599/1600, his MA in 1603 (in which year he also become a Fellow), and his BD in 1610. He was incorporated at Oxford in 1608. He was successively rector of Horton in Buckinghamshire, Stonham Aspal in Suffolk (from which he was ejected in 1644), and Thurlton in Norfolk. He is recorded as dying on the 27th November, but the year of his death is unknown.

Holt's gift to the Library

John Collins graduated BA from St Johns in 1596 and MA in 1599. He then studied for his MD, spending several years abroad, graduating in 1608. In 1613 he was elected to a Fellowship at St John's, and subsequently became a censor (1615), anatomy lecturer (1624), and Regius Professor of Physick (1626). In his post as anatomy lecturer he established dissections as part of the curriculum, although he may not have accepted the important discovery of circulation by his colleague William Harvey.

David Dolben was born in Denbighshire, came to St John's in 1602 and gained his MA in 1609. He was initially appointed vicar of Hackney, but later also gained a living in Denbighshire. Through this latter appointment he became successively prebendary of St Asaph, capital burgess of the town of Denbigh, and finally Bishop of Bangor in 1631. He published little and played no significant part in the religious controversies of the time.

Dolben's bequest to the Library