Michael Honywood


Michael Honywood DD was an English churchman who was Dean of Lincoln from 1660. Honywood was a bibliophile and he founded and funded the Lincoln Cathedral Library.

Life

He was sixth son and ninth child of Sir Robert Honywood of Charing, Kent, and of Marks Hall, Essex, by his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Browne of Betchworth Castle, Surrey. He was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge, and graduated BA in January 1615, MA 1618, BD 1636, and DD 1661.
Honywood became fellow of Christ's, where Thomas Bainbrigg was master, and served the university offices of taxor in 1623, and of proctor in 1628. Richard Crackenthorpe, a friend, records help received from Honywood in his work on logic. He took part in college management, and helped forward the erection of the new Fellows' Building, completed in 1644, by advancing money, which was not repaid till 27 August 1649. While Honywood remained a fellow, John Milton was not eligible for a fellowship, under a statute limiting fellows to just one per county.

Lincoln Cathedral Library

Honywood's major work contribution to Lincoln Cathedral was to spend £780 of his own money on the library which was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, on the site of the ruined north walk of the cloister. In this building he placed 5,000 of his own books, which he presented to the chapter. Honywood's books were in two collections. His first collection was gathered in England and it had been seized by Parliamentary forces when he was abroad. His brothers are thought to have interceded as his eldest brother was a Parliamentarian colonel. The second part of the collection consisted of the books that Honywood had purchased whilst he was in Holland before the Restoration.
The collection contained a series of rare seventeenth-century tracts, including the first issue of John Milton's Lycidas, his Tetrachordon, and Smectymnuus. Early printed books of William Caxton, Wynkyn de Worde and others, which originally formed part of Honywood's library, were sold by the chapter at the suggestion of Thomas Frognall Dibdin, with his Lincolne Nosegaie.
Today the "Wren Library" contains portraits of Honywood and his grandmother, Mary Honywood, who had 114 grandchildren.

Family

Honeywood's grandmother was Mary Honywood a woman known for her longevity and the number of descendants she had.
The parliamentarian Thomas Honywood was an older brother and Robert Honywood was a half brother.