“Borrow Bravely”: The Lending Library at St Thomas’, Tamaki

The parish of St Thomas’ in Tamaki, located on the northeast boundary of the original grounds of St John’s College, was built in 1842 with the foundation stone laid in 1843 by Acting Governor Willoughby Shortland. The building was designed by Sampson Kempthorne, who was known as the “Workhouse Architect” as he had designed numerous workhouses in England before emigrating to New Zealand with his wife in 1842.

This bookplate is from the Reverend William Cotton who, under Bishop Selwyn, was teaching at St John’s College as well as taking services at St Thomas’, and is adorned with the fantastic motto:

“Borrow bravely, Keep carefully, Peruse patiently, Return righteously.”

The pasted-in label is from a recently catalogued book (“No. 4”) shows that a small lending library was established on January 30th, 1845 to serve the members of the congregation. However, it was not located inside the church but at the house of a ‘Mr. Baber’, who must have lived nearby. The bookplate shows that William Cotton had obviously donated a portion of his own library for the local parish to use.

Unfortunately, the construction of St Thomas’ was faulty; seawater was used to mix the cement with scoria stone and was not sturdy enough to withstand the elements on such an exposed site. The church was abandoned in 1859 and subsequently fell into ruin.