(Richard), commonly known by the name of Richard de Bury, was born in 1281 at St Edmond's Bury in Suffolk, and educated at the university of Oxford: After which he entered into the order of Benedictine monks, and became tutor to Edward prince of Wales, afterwards king Edward III. Upon the accession of his royal pupil to the throne he was first appointed cofferer, then treasurer of the wardrobe, archdeacon of Northampton, prebendary of Lincoln, Sarum, and Litchfield, keeper of the privy-seal, dean of Wells, and last of all was promoted to the bishopric of Durham. He likewise enjoyed the offices of lord high chancellor and treasurer of England, and discharged two important embassies at the court of France. Learned himself, and a patron of the learned, he maintained a correspondence with some of the greatest geniuses of the age, particularly with the celebrated Italian poet Petrarch. He was also of a most humane and benevolent temper, and performed many signal acts of charity. Every week he made eight quarters of wheat into bread, and gave it to the poor. Whenever he travelled between Durham and Newcastle, he distributed eight pounds sterling in alms; between Durham and Stockton five pounds, between Durham and Auckland five marks, and between Durham and Middleham Middleham five pounds. He founded a public library at Oxford, for the use of the students, which he furnished with the best collection of books then in England; and appointed five keepers, to whom he granted yearly salaries. At the dissolution of religious houses in the reign of Henry VIII. Durham college, where he fixed the library, being dissolved among the rest, some of the books were removed to the public library, some to Balliol college, and some came into the hands of Dr George Owen, a physician of Godstow, who bought that college of king Edward VI. Bishop Aungerville died at his manor of Aukland, April 24, 1345, and was buried in the south part of the croft isle of the cathedral church of Durham, to which he had been a benefactor. He wrote, 1. Philobiblos, containing directions for the management of his library at Oxford, and a great deal in praise of learning, in bad Latin. 2. Epistolae familiae; some of which are written to the famous Petrarch. 3. Orationes ad principes; mentioned by Bale and Pitts.