John Dury

(1596 - 1680)

Born in Edinburgh, John Dury studied theology in Leiden and was chaplain and tutor to the children of Charles I. After the king’s execution in 1649, Dury urged English citizens to pledge loyalty to the new republican government. The next year he published a treatise on library management and was appointed deputy keeper of the former royal library at St. James’s Palace. He served in the post until Charles II was restored to the throne, leaving England in 1661 and spending the remainder of his life in exile.