Thomas Alured ca.1632/35-1708

Thomas ALURED ca.1632/35-1708 or later

Biographical Note

Born in Hull, son of John Alured, landowner and later a parliamentarian army officer and regicide. BA Trinity College, Cambridge 1654. Admitted at Gray’s Inn, 1655, called to the Bar 1666. Recorder of Beverley (i.e. chief professional officer of the town corporation), 1688-1700; his appointment was briefly challenged on the grounds of nonconformity.

Books

Following the foundation of Beverley parish library in 1699, Alured gave ca. 400 volumes in 1701 and 1708, listed in the donors’ book. The library was much neglected in succeeding centuries (the books were apparently used to light church fires in 1856) and only a few volumes survive today, deposited in York Minster Library.

Characteristic Markings

[do any of the Beverley PL books in YML have Alured provenance?]

Sources

• Baggs, A. P. et al, A History of the County of York East Riding: Volume 6, the Borough and Liberties of Beverley, ed. K J Allison (London, 1989), [ http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/yorks/east/vol6 British History Online].
• Perkin, M. A directory of the parochial libraries of the Church of England. London, 2004.
• Venn, J. & J. A. Alumni Cantabrigienses. Cambridge, 1922.