1907.] on the Guildhall Library. 469 



executor, John Carpenter. His will, proved in the Consistory Court 

 of London on May 12, 14-42, contains the following bequest: "If 

 any good or rare books shall be found amongst the residue of my 

 goods, which, by the discretion of the aforesaid Master William Lich- 

 field and Reginald Pecock, may seem necessary to the common library 

 at Guildhall, for the profit of the students there and those discoursing 

 to the common people, then I will and bequeath that those books be 

 placed by my executors and chained in that library, under such form 

 that the visitors and students thereof may be the sooner admonished 

 to pray for my soul." 



The Library was placed under the official charge of one of the 

 priests of the Guildhall Chapel. 



The earliest Librarian of whom any record exists, was John CUp- 

 stone, priest, who presented the following quaint petition to the Court 

 of Aldermen, on July 13, 1444 : "To the full Honorable Lord and 

 Souveraignes Maire and Aldermen of the Citee of London, Besechitch 

 lowely your Prest and Bedeman Maister John Clipstone, Keper of 

 your Liberary atte Guyldehalle for as moche as it hath likede you for 

 to take to hym the kepinge and charge of the said Liberary. Please 

 ■ it to you, for to considre the greet attendaunce and charge the which 

 he hath with it, and in waytenge therupon to graunte that he may be 

 made so sure of his lyflode, housyng, and easement of the gardyn which 

 he hath for that occupacion atte this day, that he be nat hereafter putte 

 away therefro ne noo part thereoff, nor noon other charge put upon 

 hym so that he may have more cause and occasion to pray besyly for 

 the weele of you and of the said Citee, etc." The minute of the Court, 

 in Latin, states that the request having been read and fully considered, 

 and the great merits of the petitioner and his diligence having been 

 weighed, his request was granted by the said Maior and Aldermen as 

 long as the said Master John may be willing to hold the office in per- 

 son, for the whole of his life, so that he may enjoy the emoluments, 

 even though he should be laid by through sickness. He died in 1457, 

 and was buried in Guildhall Chapel. He appears to have been suc- 

 ceeded by Thomas Mason, one of the chaplains, who was appointed 

 to a perpetual chantry in 1466. On the first page of a volume of 

 tracts and essays preserved in the library of Magdalen College, Oxford, 

 is a MS. Latin note, from which it appears that Sir Thomas Mason, 

 besides his official position as the Librarian at Guildhall, acted after- 

 wards in a similar capacity to Master Richard Langharne, for whom 

 he bought the book in question, in the year 1468, at a cost of 18s. ^d. 

 Again, in 1510, we meet with the burial in the Chapel of Edmond 

 Alison, priest, and custos of the Library, he being the last of the early 

 Librarians of whom any record is preserved. 



The Guildhall Library thus became one of the first, perhaps 

 actually the first, of the libraries established in this country for the 

 free use of the public. 



The University of Oxford soon afterwards found a benefactor in 



