A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Eglesfield (Francis)
EGLESFIELD (FRANCIS), bookseller in London; Marigold, St. Paul's Churchyard, 1637-67. Took up his freedom July 4th, 1636. [Arber, iii. 687.] Became one of the largest and most important publishers of theological literature. At the end of David Dickson's Short Explanation of the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews, 1649, there is a list of 72 books published by him, mostly Divinity, but including Herrick's Hesperides. [A. W. Pollard, Library, October, 1901, p. 436.] This is one of the earliest book lists known, as they are seldom found before 1650. In 1660, in company with John Williams, he published an edition of the Book of Common Prayer, which was at once seized by the agents of Christopher Barker the third. Eglesfield and his partner excused themselves by saying that they did not know who was the King's printer. [Domestic State Papers, Charles II.] He received a bequest of a ring from Peter Parker, q.v.