Timothy Thurscross d.1671

Timothy THURSCROSS d.1671

Biographical Note

Son of Henry Thurscross, rector in various parishes in Yorkshire. BA Magdalene College, Cambridge 1618, fellow and MA 1622, BD 1629, DD 1669. Prebendary of York 1622, vicar of Kirkby Moorside, Yorkshire 1625, Archdeacon of Cleveland 1635. Minister at the Charterhouse after the Restoration; fellow of Eton College 1670; died in London.

Books

In his will, Thurscross made extensive arrangements for the disposal of his books. He left half his English books of practical divinity to his friend Edmund Dunton; ten of his English printed sermon books to Elizabeth, daughter of his friend Thomas Shepherd; "all the books I bought of Dr Boltons widdow to the value of twenty and nyne pounds" to his friend Richard Busby; "all the manuscripts which were Mr Dents of Hammersmith" to "the sonne of my nephew Flathers". His "whole library of books not otherwise disposed of" was then left to four clerical friends (Herbert Thorndike, Richard Busby, Barnabas Oley and Peter Gunning) who were to be free to take for their own use "all such books as are of more rare use" and otherwise dispose of them as they thought best, to fit people; other books, "of more ordinary use and fittest for country curats" were to be distributed, at their discretion, among the vicars of three Yorkshire parishes, Kirkby Moorside, Langtoft and North Grimston, for the use of them and their successors. He also bequeathed his Polyglot Bible to York Minster Library, and a copy of Edmund Castell's Lexicon in folio to Eton College.

Evidence from Barnabas Oley's will suggests that the distribution of books round the parishes took place only to North Grimston. The books received there were described as "very useful" in 1705, were still there in 1731, but had been lost by 1896.

Characteristic Markings

None of Thurscross's books have been identified.

Sources

• Will of Timothy Thurscross, The National Archives PROB 11/337/522
• Perkin, M. A directory of the parochial libraries of the Church of England London, 2004, 303.
• Raine, J., A catalogue of the printed books in the Library of the Dean and Chapter of York, York, 1896, p.xii-xiii.
• Venn, J. and J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge, 1922.