Aaron Goodyear, citizen of London and a merchant trading with Turkey, was, after Ashmole, a most worthy model for later benefactors. From a natural impulse of nobility, and at the opening of this museum, he donated an entire human body, known as a mummy, which was brought from Alexandria. The outside is inscribed and decorated with characters and several hieroglyphic figures; the inside is preserved with bitumen and spices in the Egyptian manner; it is covered with plaster and bandages to protect it from decay.

Robert Huntington was Professor of Theology, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, and Provost of Trinity College, Dublin, in Ireland. Once a chaplain to the English traders in Aleppo, he left for Egypt and obtained, at great expense and effort, two moderately large stone reliefs with hieroglyphic characters and pictures, and with as much enthusiasm to rival his friend Goodyear, gave them to this Museum.

John Eliot, formerly at Exeter College and a Doctor of Medicine of both Universities, practised successfully in Canterbury and removed an exceptionally large urinary stone from the bladder of an eight-year-old girl with his own hands. He gave it to the Museum together with two naturally formed stones, one of them mounted in bronze, which resemble the horn of Ammon.

The most noble of ladies, Dorothy wife of that most generous and learned of men, Sir James Long, Bart., of Draycot Cerne in the county of Wiltshire, was the pride and joy of her family and her sex, and showed a deep interest in primitive religions and antiquities. Her piety and great good will to this University led her to give a carved ivory crozier which had belonged to Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, to this museum to be placed with the other treasures.

John Colvil of Kelling in Norfolk, in his concern to promote the study of science, natural as well as artificial, gave this Museum a very large stone which was removed with admirable skill by the highly experienced surgeon, John Hubbert of Norwich, from the bladder of a certain Beatrice Shreve of Tunstead in the same county, without either any incision or tearing. To dispel all disbelief, the mayor, justices of the peace, aldermen and members of the city's council, all gathered together in the town hall thought it only fitting to pass down to posterity the truth of the event by drawing up a document to this effect, sealed with the city seal, and by mounting the stone itself.

Gervase Wilcox, citizen of London and fishmonger, gave the Museum a so-called protestant flail, a weapon with which certain unlawful zealots attempted unsuccessfully, thank God, to subvert the Monarchy, the Church and the Universities. From their ranks Stephen College was hanged at Oxford. Gervase Wilcox added it to the Museum's collection as a perpetual cause of shame and a reproach to men of that kind.

John Heysig, of Holmen in Sweden, a man renowned for his integrity and knowledge in many fields, on his return home, left to this museum, as a pledge of his good will and with the intention of giving more, an ancient runic tablet and three wooden runic almanacs of the kind still used today by farmers in the northern parts of Sweden and Lapland, together with two medals, one of King Charles IX of Sweden, the other of Johannes Scheffer Esq. Professor of Uppsala.

Martin Lister Esq., the son of a Knight, was awarded a Doctorate in Medicine for which he had not himself supplicated but which was spontaneously conferred on him by the University of Oxford; he had no foreknowledge of this, but amply deserved it. He was famous for his deeds and his writings; and in order to further the study of Natural History, he enriched this museum collection with shells of all kinds, from the sea, from the rivers and from the land; also freshwater mussels; formed stones and fluors, and various types of gypsum, mica, talc and metals of all kinds, most of which come from England. Furthermore, to preserve the past for posterity, he generously gave the Museum a large number of antiquities, Roman as well as British, which included altars, medals, rings and seals.

This most excellent of men, to make complete his generous gift, also gave the Museum a variety of books, listed in his own catalogue, illustrating different aspects of Natural History.

William Gibbons, Doctor of Medicine and Fellow of St. John’s College, a great expert in his field, generously offered the Museum a little horned fish from the Indian ocean, known as a Setang, in order to promote the study of Natural History and to add to the Museum's collection of fishes. (We hope for more).

Edward Ent, son of the most celebrated Sir George Ent, President of the Royal College of Physicians, was a student of Civil Law at Balliol College, and also took a very keen interest in the mysteries of Nature. He was happy to be able to give the Museum twenty-four birds (some of them wild) in order to fill a major gap in the Museum’s collection.

Thomas Braithwait Esq., of Ambleside in Westmorland, who was a great antiquary, gave this museum at his death more than 300 ancient coins, six of which are of gold, sixty-six of silver, and the rest of bronze, in order to make the Museum unrivalled in one of the areas of its collection.

William Kingsley Esq., resident near the cathedral at Canterbury and a notable antiquary, out of regard for the University, was happy to enrich this museum not only with manuscript volumes but also with ancient remains of Reculver and Canterbury.

William Charleton Esq. of Middle Temple in London, was a keen observer of nature and of peoples everywhere, at home and abroad. As if to perfect this already well-equipped Museum, he supplied it, from his own abundant collection, with a complete hammer-headed shark, as well as various species of corals and shells, and a large number of coins.

Sir William Dugdale, Garter King-of-Arms, of Blyth Hall in Shustoke in Warwickshire, a most learned antiquary, bequeathed forty-eight volumes in manuscript (forty-three folios and five quartos) on a wide range of British antiquities to be placed in the adjoining Ashmolean library. He gave them out of gratitude to and the deepest appreciation of his estimable son-in-law, Elias Ashmole, and to add to the reputation of this Museum which carries the distinguished name of Ashmole.

The most illustrious Theophilus Leigh Esq. of Longborough in Gloucestershire, willingly brought to the Museum a medal, remarkable for its size and engraving, struck from the very same silver which the English recovered from the wreck of a Spanish ship (near Jamaica), in order to ensure that this notable feat was not forgotten, and that the museum did not lack such a rare object in its collection.

Nicholas Roberts MA, from St. Davids and of Jesus College, was deeply interested in Natural History and a keen student of the natural history of his own country. In order to add to the riches of the Museum, he kindly donated several sea-birds found only in the northern regions. These included an arctic duck of Clusius, a guillemot and a Norwegian auk of Hoier and several other migratory birds, which makes one hope that there may be more.

Edward Morgan from Glamorgan, the celebrated former keeper of the botanical gardens at Westminster, and a man extremely knowledgeable about plants. When he heard from Edward Lhwyd (under-keeper of this Museum) that the collection lacked a hortus siccus or a collection of [dried] plants, he bequeathed to the Museum three large folio volumes containing some 2,000 specimens of plants (almost all of which he had grown himself in the aforementioned garden).

The most distinguished John Aubrey Esq., from Easton Piercy in Wiltshire, formerly a scholar at Trinity College, Oxford, out of regard for Ashmole and his Museum, gave some eighty small books (some of them printed, some in manuscript), and in addition, several portraits of famous men, Roman coins and their clay matrices, and also a fragment of a mosaic or pavement (all of which are carefully listed in the catalogues).

The distinguished John Robinson MA, former Fellow of Oriel College and King James II's Envoy-Extraordinary to Sweden, concerned that inscriptions of any people or language should be lacking from Oxford, obtained, at great trouble and expense, two monumental runic stones, and generously sent them to England to be set up in the forecourt of the Museum (to grace their surroundings).

The Very Reverend and celebrated Edward Pococke, Doctor of Divinity and Regius Professor of Oriental Languages, decided to give the Museum various objects pertaining to the Jewish religion, namely: 1, The Book of Esther which is read by the Jews in Synagogue at the Festival of Purim (which falls on 14 and 15 of February). 2, A Jewish trumpet made of a ram's horn which is blown every day, both morning and evening, between 1 and 28 of August, and also on the day of Atonement. 3, Philacteries worn on the forehead to be a reminder of God's laws. 4, Philacteries worn on the arms which are tied to the bare left arm to be close to the heart. 5, A Jewish whip with a triple thong made from the skin of the ass, sheep and ox. In addition we received, after this very distinguished man's death, a Turkish robe of honour which he, respected even by a foreign people for his character and learning, was presented with during his travels in the Ottoman Empire.

John Sowter, London merchant, a man distinguished by his singular talent and charming manners, gave this museum several Swedish bronze coins notable for their unique shape and size: we hope that even more will be given to us in the future.

In 1693, the same man gave the museum some Turkish horse-blankets which were seized in the famous siege of the city of Vienna in 1683.

Matthew Bird, a ship's master from Caerleon in Monmouth-shire, gave the Museum a figure in a coat of mail, sculpted from alabaster, which was once covered in gold leaf, holding a sword, still fully preserved, in its right hand and, in its left, a pair of scales. The right pan of the scales, which is the heavier, shows a girl's face, the left one shows the globe of the Earth. It was dug up in about 1660 near the town of Caerleon or, in Latin, Isca Legionum (where the Second Augustan legion used to be stationed) near the spot known as Porth Siny Kran.

Charles King MA, once a Student of Christ Church, gave the Museum three gems, two oriental jaspers, octagonal in shape, with the image of a water carrier; and one chalcedony with four skillfully carved figures of Mars, Mercury, Ceres and Cupid. Ibid, nos. 154, 519.

Charles Hopkins gave the Museum a circular gold plate which was recently dug up near Ballyshannon in Ireland. He found it with the help of an ancient dirge chanted by an old Irish harpist, in which he sang of a strong man and his place of burial, and told of two gold plates and as many gold rings, commited to the earth with him. For the narrative in full, see Camden, [Britannia], ed. Gibson, p. 1022. Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 959.

Justinian Shepherd, from Great Barford in Oxfordshire, gave the Museum an American belt made from the shell money used by the native people of New England (resembling fragments of tobacco pipes). See the Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 955.

Richard Dyer MA, Fellow of Oriel College, gave the Museum four gold coins and ten silver ones and also added, as a perpetual memorial a silver-plated brass half crown, and other clipped coins (both shillings and sixpences) which took the place of the legal English currency. Given in 1695. See the Vice-Chancellor's Catalogue, no. 252a et seq. and 5 at the end.

Timothy Lannoy Esq., a merchant trading to the Ottoman Empire, gave the museum the soft skin of a Turkish goat, with curly silken hair, from Angora, near Constantinople.

Edward Lhwyd, a Welshman by origin, of Jesus College, Oxford, was the Senior Bedel of Divinity at Oxford. He succeed Plot in this Museum and was entirely his equal in generosity and learning, for he was a very erudite man. After administering the Museum for many years with the greatest care and diligence, and after completing his work on building and arranging the Natural History collection, he wanted his collection of British stones, full of all types of figured stones, to be preserved among the treasures of the Ashmolean.

John Woodward, celebrated Professor of Medicine at Gresham College, generously offered this museum various specimens of rare fossils from his abundant collection of remains from the period of the Flood. We hope that one day he will give more.

Thomas Shaw BA, from Queen's College, who was much devoted to Natural History, gave this Museum a large collection of insects caught around Oxford, elegantly arranged into their various classes and families.

The excellent young Henry Johnson, Gentleman-Commoner of Christ Church, gave this Museum the skin of a giant scaly lizard commonly known as an Asraw.

Joseph Disney, Commoner of Christ Church and a devoted antiquary, gave the museum a drawing of Pontefract Castle from the time when it was under enemy siege in 1648.

Smart Lethiullier Esq., of Aldersbrook in Essex, in 1756, gave this Museum various species of animals which he had purchased from the Woodward collection. They are enclosed in sixteen cylindrical glass jars.

Nathaniel Crynes MA, Senior Bedel in the Faculty of Arts, gave the Museum a small Mexican picture which is ingeniously composed of birds' feathers.

Edward Seymour, from Wantage in Berkshire, was a pharmacist and dedicated to the museum the first fruits of his work on chemical dyes. He discovered this art, and struck permanent tints through a plank of wood from a type of walnut tree.

Anne Mary Woodford, daughter of Richard Woodford MD, Regius Professor of Medicine in this University, The Regius Professor was, in fact, William Woodford. gave the Museum a paper collar, elaborately worked, by her own hand, with the point of a needle.

Thomas Pennant Esq., from Bychton in Flintshire, kindly enriched the Museum with various natural, metallic, mineral and crystalline specimens.

William Perrot Esq., of North Leigh in Oxfordshire, generously gave a giant Asian bat, known as a flying dog [fox], to this Museum. The reader may study this animal more fully in Edwards's History of Birds, pl. 180.