Volume 17 , Issue 39

A Public Library Founded in 1699

In a letter to the editor of the New York Times, Mrs. Emma Maffitt, historian North Carolina Society of Colonial Dames of America, Wilmington, NC, wrote the 6th of March 1898 concerning Public Libraries: "The Acts of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina," published by Francois Carver Martin, 1795, I find the following, which may be of inert to your readers:"

Found on Newspapers.com

To the Editor of The New York Times:

The Times's Saturday Review of Dec. 25, 1897, contained an article on "Future Libraries and Museums in Philadelphia," in which occurs this part of a sentence, "the city of Benjamin Franklin, of the first public library in America." I believe this was founded in 1731. In "The Acts of the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina," published by Francois Carver Martin, 1795, I find the following, which may be of interest to your readers:

"An Act Appointing a Town in the County of Bath, and for securing the Public Library belonging to St. Thomas Parish, in Pamlico."

This act, a copy of which I send for your inspection, was "made and ratified the eighth day of March Anno Domini one thousand seven hundred and five." Being much interested, I examined all Colonial records of that date in the public library of Wilmington, and also wrote to the only person known to me in that part of the State, the Rev. Robert Brent Crane, D. D., for further information as to whether that library was still in existence and by whom founded. In reply, he referred me to "Church History of North Carolina," published 1892, where, in the index, are references to "Libraries, Public, in the Province of North Carolina," and also states that "among the things exhibited at the Historico-Ecclesiastical Exhibition, held at Tarborough, N.C., May 16-19, 1890, was a copy of one of these volumes from this library, published by Gabriel Towerson, London, 1685."

He then gives a list of the books of this library now in existence. The volume on exhibition was given to the Diocese of East Carolina, and intrusted to the care of its Bishop, the Right Rev. A. A. Watson, D. D.

In the history referred to I read that this library was founded by Dr. Bray in 1699, and consisted of £100 worth of books, which had been sent out from England. As early as 1669 there is reference to the "Tower Precincts of Albemarle," (Colonial Records, N.C., Vol. I, 181.) The Rev. Mr. Blair, in 1703, states that there are five precincts in the Colony, and he seems to use the terms "precinct" and "Parish" interchangeably, (C. R., I, 002.) In 1705 the colony consisted of two counties, Albemarle and Bath, and these were divided into four precincts, each of which was a parish after 1701.

In 1720 Edward Mosely, a member of the Council, an able lawyer and a leader in the State, "Made a large donation of standard books toward a provincial library, to be kept in Denton, the metropolis of North Carolina." The list of these books I have; also that of the remains of Mosely's private library, which is still extant, and contains many quaint old books, notably on English Prayer Book, printed in London, 1731, and containing the coat-of-arms of the Hassel family, from whom it descended.

In Dr. Drane's letter to me he wrote that on the covers of the volumes from the Colonial Library of Bath which were exhibited at the Historic-Ecclesiastical Exhibition, 1890, was stamped "Belonging to ye Library of St. Thomas Parish, in Pamlico."

The private library of Edward Mosely was removed from Mosely Hall, the residence of its first owner to Lillington Hall, to the owners of which this library descended,a nd then to the Summer residence on Masonborough Sound, near Wilmington, of the family of the late Dr. Edwin Anderson of this place, who married a daughter of Gen. Lillington of Revolutionary fame. This library is now at that place, and I have been presented with a list of the books now composing it. Some have been lost in the removal during the burning of Mosely Hall, but it is still a large one.
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