A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Butter (Nathaniel)

by Henry Robert Plomer

BUTTER (NATHANIEL), bookseller in London, (1) Pyde Bull, St. Austins Gate, 1608; (2) Cursitors Alley, 1660. (1605-64). The son of Thomas Butter (1581-90). Admitted a freeman February 20th, 1603/4. [Arber, ii. 736.] Entered his first publication in the registers December 4th, 1604. Two editions of King Lear bear his name and the date 1608, one without any address and the other with that of the Pyde Bull. That without address has the well-known "Heb Ddien, heb ddina ddim" device, the other the winged horse used by George Snowden and afterwards by Nicholas Okes, who took over the business of the Snowdens some time in the year 1608. In 1622, in conjunction with William Shefford, Butter published a sheet entitled News from most parts of Christendom and from that time made journalism his chief business. In 1630 he began a series of half-yearly volumes of collected foreign news under titles such as the Swedish Intelligencer. Charles I granted to Butter and N. Bourne the right of publishing all matter of history or news, they paying the sum of ten pounds yearly to the repair of St. Paul's. On May 21st, 1639, Butter made over the copyrights of all plays in his possession to Miles Fletcher, or Flesher, devoting himself entirely to the issue of news-sheets. He is last heard of in the Registers on December 3rd, 1663, when he made over to Thomas Rookes, q.v., his copyright in Dr. Halliday's Sermons. [Registers, Liber F, p. 274.] He died in the following February, and his death is thus recorded by Smyth in his Obituary: "22 Febry 1663/4. Nath: Butter an old stationer, died very poore." [D.N.B.; Library, N.S., No. 26, pp. 163–6; Domestic State Papers, 1638–9, p. 182.]