make for the many favours he acknowledged to have been conferred on him and on his grandfather, Dr. Thomas Willis, Professor of Natural Philosophy. This latter provision of his will was at once carried into execution; in the following year the University purchased one hundred and sixty-seven gold coins for £150 at £4 4s. per oz., and two more in 1743 for £8 5s. His other coins were given by him in the years 1739, 1740, 1741, 1747 and 1750; and by a codicil to his will dated Feb. 5, 1742, he desired that the whole collection should be annually visited on the Feast of St. Frideswide (Oct. 19), which day he had himself been wont annually to celebrate in Oxford. His first gift to the Library was in the year 1720, when he gave ten valuable MSS., chiefly historical (now placed among the general Bodley Series), together with his grandfather's portrait.
A bequest of £70, towards the purchase of an orrery, was received from Rev. Jos. Parsons, M.A., of Merton College.
A.D. 1761.
Kennicott's collations of Hebrew Biblical MSS., made during the years 1759-60, were received from him on Dec. 17, in this year, according to an entry in the Register. But all his MSS., collations, correspondence, and miscellaneous books (including one in Zend, upon cloth), were subsequently deposited in the Radcliffe Library, whence they were removed, in 1862, together with the other contents of that collection, to the place of their present deposit, the New Museum.
A.D. 1762.
The west, or Selden, end of the Library was re-floored at a cost of £66. Unchaining of those books which hitherto, on
account of their accessibility to all comers, were fastened to their shelves, appears to have been commenced in this year.
A.D. 1763.
The Janitor, Rev. John Bilstone, M.A., was deprived of his office by Dr. Owen, the Librarian, on account of his neglecting to perform his duties in person. An action for arrears of salary was subsequently brought by Bilstone against Owen[258]. He died Feb. 13, 1767, at which time he held three livings, besides his Chaplaincy of All Souls' College.
[258] 'See papers in Files, 1763; Archiv.' (MS. note in Dr. P. Bliss' Collectanea.)