Bodley was charged by some of his contemporaries, and apparently with some justice, with sacrificing in his will the claims of relatives and friends too much to the interests of the Library. One Mr. John Chamberlain, a friend of Bodley, whose gossiping letters to Sir Dudley Carleton, Alice Carleton, and others, are preserved in the State Paper Office, does not spare his accusations on this head. In a letter dated Feb. 4, 1613, he says that Bodley has left legacies to great people, £7000 to the Library, and £200 to Merton College, but little to his brothers, his old servants, his friends, or the children of his wife, by whom he had all his wealth[62]. In another, dated June 23, 1613, he remarks that the executors cannot excuse Bodley of unthankfulness to many of his relatives and friends, he being 'so drunk with the applause and vanitie of his librarie that he made no conscience to rob Peter to pay Paul[63].' Some inferential corroboration of this is afforded by the following curious paper preserved among Rawlinson's gatherings (now in a vol. numbered Rawl. MS. Miscell., 1203), being no other than a petition for relief addressed by the grand-nephew and grand-niece of Bodley in the year 1712 (as appears from the Library accounts) to the Heads of Houses and Curators of the Library, who appear both officially and individually to have been very parsimonious in their response:-- 'To the Worshipful Mr. Vice-Chancellor and to all heads and governors of Colleges and Halls within the famous University of Oxon. 'The humble petition of William Snoshill of East Lockinge in the county of Berks, labourer, and of Jane the wife of Thomas Hatton of Childrey in the county aforesaid, labourer, sister of the said William Snoshill, 'Humbly sheweth, 'That your Petitioners being the grand-children of the sister of Sir Thomas Bodley, the munificent founder of the Bodleian Library in your University, being now reduc'd to a poor and low estate, do with all humility make bold to represent their distrest condition to your consideration, hoping that out of your tender pity and commiseration, and that regard you have for the pious memory of so great a benefactor to your University, to whom your poor Petitioners are so nearly allied, you will be pleas'd to consider them as real objects of your charity and compassion, and thereby you will lay an eternal obligation on them of praying for your present and future happiness. 'William Snoshill 'Jane Hatton. 'We, whose names are subscribed to this Petition, are well satisfied of the truth thereof. 'Thomas Paris, rector of Childrey 'John Holmes 'John Bell, vic. of Sparsholt 'John Aldworth, rector of East Lockinge 'Ralph Kedden, M.A., vicar of Denchworth, Berks.