View source for Robert Mapletoft 1609-1677

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===[[name::Robert]] [[name::MAPLETOFT]] [[date of birth::1609]]-[[date of death::1677]]===

====Biographical Note====
Born at [[place of birth::North Thoresby, Lincolnshire]], son of [[family::Hugh Mapletoft]], [[occupation::rector]] there. BA [[education::Queens’ College, Cambridge]] 1628, MA 1632, BD 1639, DD 1660. [[occupation::fellow|Fellow]] of [[organisations::Pembroke College, Cambridge]] 1631. [[occupation::rector|Rector]] of [[location::Bartlow, Cambridgeshire]] 1639, ejected 1643, after which he spent the Interregnum living privately in sympathetic households, including that of [[associates::Sir Robert Shirley]], and providing prayer book services to private congregations. [[occupation::prebendary|Prebendary]] of [[location::Lincoln]] 1660, and [[occupation::Master]] of the [[organisations::Spital Hospital]] there; [[occupation::Master]] of [[organisations::Pembroke College, Cambridge|Pembroke]] 1664, [[occupation::dean|Dean]] of [[organisations::Ely Cathedral|Ely]] 1667. He had a reputation for piety and charity; he was a cousin of [[family::Nicholas Ferrar]], and a regular visitor to the community at [[location::Little Gidding]]. Mapletoft helped [[associates::Nicholas Ferrar|Ferrar]] by obtaining books for him and searching out scriptural concordances in [[organisations::University of Cambridge|Cambridge]] libraries.

====Books==== 
Mapletoft re-established the Cathedral Library at [[organisations::Ely Cathedral|Ely]], dispersed during the Interregnum, by the terms of his will. He [[bequest::bequeathed]] “my library of books” (described as “the small reserves from the late plundering times with what I have since added to it”), together with [[monetary value::£100]] to be used for the purchase of books, and the fitting up of a new Library room. It was then to be available to all members of the Dean and Chapter (each to have a key), and to petty canons and others by permission. The collection was valued, in Mapletoft’s probate inventory, at [[monetary value::£50]] (out of a total estate valued at [[monetary value::£563 13s 8d]]). There is no list or count of the number of volumes; the books fitted into three barrels and were catalogued for [[monetary value::five shillings]]. It is evident that Mapletoft lost many books during the 1640s. [[organisations::Ely Cathedral Library]] was dispersed in 1970, with 1500 volumes transferred on deposit to [[subsequent owner::Cambridge University Library]], and the remainder sold by [[auction::auction]]. 

====Characteristic markings==== 
Ely.c.223 (Lessius, 1620) has the inscription “Roberti Mapletoft et amicoru[m]” on the rear flyleaf; parts of the text carry extensive underlining and marginal notes.

====Sources==== 
<div id="sourcelist">
*Maycock, A., ''Nicholas Ferrar'', 1938.
*Owen, D. ''The Library and muniments of Ely Cathedral'', 1973.
*Venables, Edmund, and S. L. Sadler. [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/18019 "Mapletoft, Robert (1609–1677), college head."] ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. 
</div>

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