Bancroft was ‘small of stature,’ and that he was talked of as ‘the small poet,’ partly in reference to his littleness, and partly in allusion to his ‘small’ poems and epigrams.
[Corser's Collectanea (Chetham Society); Hunter's MS. Chorus Vatum; Lysons's Derbyshire; Glutton's Feaver, reprinted for the Roxburghe Club; Bancroft's Works.]
BANCROFT, THOMAS (1756–1811), vicar of Bolton, the son of Thomas Bancroft, a thread-maker, was born in Deansgate, Manchester, in 1756. At the age of six he was admitted into the Manchester grammar school, where, in course of time, he became a teacher. He held a school exhibition from 1778 to 1781, and graduated B.A. at Brasenose College, Oxford, 10 Oct. 1781. In 1780 he obtained the Craven scholarship; in the same year he assisted in correcting the edition of Homer published by the Clarendon Press, and further helped Dr. Falconer in correcting an edition of Strabo. Being disappointed of a fellowship at Oxford, he returned to Manchester grammar school as assistant master, and remained there until he was appointed head-master of King Henry VIII's school at Chester. ‘Towards the end of last century,’ writes Dr. Ormerod, ‘the school attained a considerable degree of classical celebrity under the direction of the late Rev. Thomas Bancroft, afterwards vicar of Bolton-le-Moors in Lancashire. Plays were occasionally performed by the boys, and a collection of Greek, Latin, and English exercises, partly written by the scholars and partly by Mr. Bancroft, was published at Chester (1788) under the title of “Prolusiones Poeticæ”’ (Hist. of Cheshire, i. 366 note). While at this school he married Miss Bennett, of Willaston Hall, against the wishes of her father, a wine merchant in Chester. Her father prevented an attempted elopement by running his sword through Bancroft's leg, a feat for which he had to pay Bancroft 1,000l. compensation. A marriage soon afterwards took place in defiance of the father, who was never reconciled to his daughter. He bequeathed, however, 1,000l. each to her two daughters. In 1793 Bancroft was presented by Bishop Cleaver to the living of Bolton-le-Moors, then worth about 250l. a year. In 1798 Bancroft was made chaplain to the Bolton volunteers by royal warrant, and four years previously he had been appointed domestic chaplain to Viscount Castle-Stewart. He was made one of the four ‘king's preachers’ allowed to the county of Lancaster by Dr. Majendie, bishop of Chester, in 1807. He continued vicar of Bolton until his death on 5 Feb. 1811. There is a tablet to his memory in the parish church.
He published various sermons, the ‘Prolusiones’ already mentioned, and wrote three dissertations (Oxford, 1835). Two tracts, ‘The Credibility of Christianity vindicated,’ Manchester, 1831, and ‘The Englishman armed against the Infidel Spirit of the Times,’ Stockport, 1833, were privately printed for his son-in-law, J. Bradshaw Isherwood. There remain several of his manuscripts in possession of the family of Major Fell, of Bolton, who married one of Bancroft's granddaughters.
[Smith's Register of Manchester Grammar School (Chetham Soc.), i. 103–6, iii. 340; Ormerod's History of Cheshire, i. 288, note; Bolton Weekly Journal, 16 and 23 April 1881.]
BANDINEL, BULKELEY, D.D. (1781–1861), librarian of the Bodleian Library, was born at Oxford 21 Feb. 1781, and was descended from an Italian family long settled in Jersey. Having been educated at Reading, Winchester, and New College, and having served as chaplain to Sir James Saumarez in the Baltic, he was in 1810 appointed under-librarian of the Bodleian, the librarian, Mr. Price, being his godfather, and he succeeded the latter in 1813. He appears to have entered upon his duties with energy, it being recorded in Macray's ‘Annals of the Bodleian’ that the sum expended in purchases immediately rose from 261l. to 725l., and the catalogue of annual additions from two pages to seventeen. At the visit of the allied sovereigns to Oxford in 1814 Bandinel was proctor for the university, and in this capacity gained great credit. The most important administrative occurrences during his long tenure of office as Bodley's librarian were the publication of the catalogue in 1843 and succeeding years, and the adoption of the means by which it has ever since been kept in alphabetical order. The acquisitions during the period were exceedingly numerous and important, including the Canonici MSS., the Oppenheim Hebrew library, the Sutherland collection of prints, and the stores of various kinds accumulated by Bruce, Horace Wilson, Count Mortara, Malone, and Douce, the latter acquisition being said to be due to the personal courtesy shown to the irritable antiquary by Bandinel. In 1860 Bandinel, worn out by age and infirmity, resigned his post. He retired on his full salary, and was appointed an honorary curator, but only survived his resignation a few months, dying on 6 Feb. 1861. He is highly eulogised for ‘zeal, energy, courtesy, and discretion,’ as well as for his surprisingly accurate acquaintance with the collections committed to his charge.
