Sir Thomas, founder of the Bodleian library at Oxford, was born at Exeter in Devonshire in 1544. When he was about twelve years of age, his father, Mr John Bodley, being a Protestant, was obliged to leave the kingdom. He settled at Geneva with his family, and continued there till the death of Queen Mary. In that university, then in its infancy, young Bodley studied the learned languages, and other branches, under several eminent professors. On the accession of Queen Elizabeth, he returned with his father to England, and was soon after entered of Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1563 he took the degree of bachelor of arts, and the year following was admitted a fellow of Merton College. In 1565 he read a Greek lecture in the hall of that college. He took the degree of master of arts the year after, and read natural philosophy in the public schools. In 1569 he was one of the proctors of the university, and for some time after officiated as public orator. In the year 1576 he quitted Oxford, and made the tour of Europe. On returning to his college after four years absence, he became gentleman-usher to Queen Elizabeth; and in 1585 he married the widow of Mr Bell, daughter of Mr Carew of Bristol, a lady of considerable fortune. Mr Bodley was soon after sent as ambassador to the king of Denmark, and other German princes. He was next charged with an important commission to Henry IV. of France; and in 1588 he went as ambassador to the United Provinces, where he continued till the year 1597. On his return to England, finding his preferment obstructed by the jarring interests of Burleigh and Essex, he retired from court, and could never afterwards he prevailed on to accept of any public employment. He now began the foundation of the Bodleian Library, which was completed in 1599. Soon after the accession of King James I, he received the honour of knighthood. He died on the 28th of January 1612, and was buried in the choir of Merton College. His monument is of black and white marble, on which stands his effigy in a scholar's gown, surrounded with books. At the four corners are the emblematical figures of Grammar, Rhetoric, Music, and Arithmetic, with a short inscription, signifying his age and the time of his death. Sir Thomas Bodley was a polite scholar, an able statesman, and a worthy man. Mr Granger observes, that he merited much as a man of letters, but incomparably more in the ample provision he made for literature, in which he stands unrivalled; and that his library is a mausoleum which will perpetuate his memory as long as books themselves endure. Sir Thomas wrote his own life to the year 1609; which, together with the first draught of the Statutes, and his Letters, have been published from the originals in the Bodleian library, by Mr Thomas Hearn, under the title of "Reliquiae Bodleanae, or Authentic Remains of Sir Thomas Bodley;" London, 1703, in 8vo.