I've been going through the attic in my mums house and found a two really old books. I tried to find them online and haven't been able to find any decent information on them or their authors.
The first one is called Saint Avstines religion collected from his own writings by John Brereley which dates back to 1620. I've only been able to find limited information on the author from a Cambridge University article and haven't been able to find anything about the book.
The other one is called A treatise of the written word of God composed in Latin by James Gordon Huntley printed in 1614. I've found a Wikipedia article on him (and possibly a reference to the book - except it's spelt differently) however information on the book seems pretty limited.
I'm not entirely sure what to do with the books. My mum inherited the books from my grandfather (who I presume inherited it from his grandparents - and I guess this cycle went on for 400 years), but she doesn't really seem too attached to them. I considered giving them to a museum, but unfortunately I live in a dead-zone for museums and the only ones nearby aren't interested in them. I could keep them, but I don't think they're being kept in the best condition considering the original pigskin binding is pretty beat-up and the words in the front of the book written in pencil (presumably by one of my distant relatives) are basically illegible because of how faded they are.
I was just wondering if there's anything I can do with them. I'm not sure how many books from the 17th century still exist, but I'd like it if these aren't lost to history.
For identifying books printed in England before the 19th-20th century one of the best resources is the English Short Title Catalogue, which is hosted by the British Library. This is a database with information on pretty much every known book printed in English between 1473 and 1800. The main focus of the database is books printed in the British Isles and North America, though not exclusively. The information for the books you have can be found here and the second is here. Your trouble finding the John Brerely work is probably because that is a pseudonym. The author's actual name is James Anderton.
One of the neat things with the ESTC is that it includes which institutions are known to hold copies of a work. So as you can see, the books you've found are present in a handful of collections but they do appear to be fairly rare.
As for what to do with them, get them out of the attic. If possible, the best conditions to store books in is 68-72 Fahrenheit (20-22 Celsius) and a relative humidity in the 40-50% range. Maintaining that in an attic would be pretty difficult, but a room in your main house with limited sunlight should be pretty manageable. If you want to read them, treat them very carefully. Most libraries that deal with rare books have foam wedges or plastic book supports that support the covers and minimize wear and tear to the books. Here is a great blog post from the British Library that details some of the concerns with handling old, potentially fragile books and has some images of book supports and weights in use.
If you want to donate them to an institution, please research special collections and rare book libraries. These are facilities whose typical main purpose is the collection of old, rare, interesting printed or manuscript materials (as well as a variety of other esoteric items). They will be much more likely to be willing to accept and properly care for these books than a regular museum or regular library.