Thomas Bodley

Sir Thomas Bodley (2 March 1545 – 28 January 1613) was an English diplomat and scholar who founded the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Origins Thomas Bodley was born on 2 March 1545, in the second-to-last year of the reign of King Henry VIII, in the city of Exeter in Devon. He was one of the seven sons of John Bodley (d. 15 Oct. 1591) of Exeter, a Protestant merchant who chose foreign exile rather than staying in England under the Roman Catholic government of Queen Mary. He was thereby involved in the publication of Sir Rowland Hill's Geneva Bible. John's father, also John Bodley, was a younger son of the gentry family of Bodley of Dunscombe, near Crediton in Devon. Thomas's mother was Joan Hone, a daughter and co-heiress of Robert Hone of Ottery St Mary, Devon. Thomas's younger brother was Sir Josias Bodley, knighted in Ireland by the Earl of Devon.