A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Introduction
INTRODUCTION.
HEN, on the 3rd November, 1640, the Long Parliament met, it found the book-trade suffering from an acute attack of censorship. Ever since the days of Elizabeth there had been two great impediments to the expansion of that trade. One of these was the Government, which objected to criticism and sought safety by bribing the press and strangling the free circulation of books. The other was the Company of Stationers, which desired to keep the trade in the hands of its privileged members and objected to any increase in the number of presses, or of booksellers, because the greater the number the smaller the profits of the monopolists. The duty of meeting a legitimate demand weighed little with men who cared for nothing save their own interests, and naturally, the Company seeking its privileges from the Government, was at all times the willing instrument of that Government. The result was that the book-trade was cramped, printing was bad—there being no encouragement to the printer to produce artistic work—and the most saleable books, such as school books, bibles, and service books, were printed at secret presses.
All these evils had, during the previous ten years, been intensified by Archbishop Laud and his brother bishops, who attempted to stem the growing onset of Puritanism, with the pillory, branding iron, and prison cell. Sir John Lambe had carefully winnowed the London printing houses, and Laud and his friends hoped that by the Star Chamber Decree of 1637, which gave to the Stationers' Company increased powers of search, they had effectually muzzled the press. As vainly did Mrs. Partington with her mop try to keep out the sea. Had the state of England been normal, there would have been no need for the decree of 1637, and conversely, the public mind being in a highly excitable state, the decree of 1637 was overwhelmed and swept aside by the events which immediately succeeded it. Almost the very first act of the Long Parliament was to appoint a Committee for Religion, which called before it booksellers and printers who had been interfered with by "my lord of Canterbury," thrown into prison, and otherwise grievously maltreated, and great was the punishment they exacted in return. So too there were Committees of printing, which listened to the woes of Michael Sparke and recommended that he should be repaid the sum wrung from him by the Star Chamber. Meanwhile, with religion at fever heat, and public events moving with a rapidity hitherto unknown, the cry was for "News!" and "More News!" Thus the Star Chamber decree that there were to be no more than twenty printers was speedily disregarded.
So for the next three years printers and booksellers alike were left unmolested, and grew and multiplied prodigiously. News-sheets poured from the press in ever increasing numbers, and were hawked broadcast through the city and suburbs of London, and pens of all kinds "walked," to use the quaint expression of the period, fast and furiously in the political and religious controversies that were rending the country, to the entire exclusion of all other forms of literature.
Then came a change. The Parliament began to find itself criticised, as even the most popular of Parliaments is bound to make some enemies, and it liked the process as little as the King and the bishops had done. It looked about for weapons to defend itself and found two, the old rusty censorship and the pen. Half ashamed to go back to the methods it had so vigorously denounced, the Long Parliament adopted the censorship very mildly at first, while freely engaging writers such as Milton to meet the onslaught of its foes with the pen. The first Ordinance against the book-trade was that of the 9th March, 16423, which gave the Committee of Examinations power to appoint searchers for presses employed in printing scandalous and lying pamphlets. They were instructed to demolish and take away such presses, their materials and the printers' nuts and spindles, and to bring the printers, or their workmen, before the committee. They were also given power to commit to prison alike the printers, the vendors, and any persons who should refuse to allow their premises to be searched, and anyone so committed was not to be released until all the charges incurred in the seizure had been paid. The following stationers were appointed to act as searchers under the foregoing order, Felix Kyngston, Samuel Man, George Miller, John Bellamy, William Lee, junior, John Partridge, Christopher Meredith, Robert Dawlman, Matthew Walbancke, Richard Cotes, Joseph Hunscott, and John Raworth. Felix Kyngston was one of the oldest members of the Company, having taken up his freedom as far back as 1597. Samuel Man was warden of the Company, and the remainder were probably chosen for their known Presbyterian tendencies. At the same time, the Common Council of the City of London passed an act for the apprehending of all vagrant persons, men, women and children, who should be found hawking or crying pamphlets or books about the streets of the City.
Barely three months later, on the 14th June, Parliament sets out another Ordinance against the book trade. This begins with a preamble in which it is admitted that the previous Order had had little or no effect, and that in spite of it, very many, as well stationers and printers, as others of sundry other professions not free of the Stationers' Company, have taken upon them to set up sundry private Printing Presses in corners, and to print, vend, publish, and disperse Books, Pamphlets, and Papers, in such multitudes, that no industry could be sufficient to discover or bring to punishment, all the several abounding delinquents, and then proceeds to try and perform the feat which it has just declared impossible. The sundry other professions here alluded to were chiefly drapers and haberdashers, but no doubt Parliament had in its mind at that moment, Henry Walker (q.v.), who from being an ironmonger, had turned tub-thumper, pamphleteer, and bookseller. This Ordinance further stated that several persons, stationers themselves and members of the Company, out of revenge against those appointed to carry out the orders of Parliament, had taken the liberty to print the most profitable vendible copies of books, belonging to those privileged members. It then proceeded to enact (1) That no order of either House of Parliament, should be printed by anyone, except by order of one or both Houses; (2) That no book, pamphlet, or paper, should be printed, bound, stitched, or put to sale, without the licence of the person appointed by Parliament to licence it and without being entered in the Registers of the Company; (3) That no book which was the property of the Company should be printed without their consent, or that of the owner of the copyright; (4) Nor should any such books formerly printed in England, be imported from abroad. The Company, the Serjeant of the House of Commons, Justices of the Peace, and Constables were given the right of search.
Incidentally, this ordinance affords an insight into the condition of the Company, which is amply borne out by the Registers of that period. The Company was at war within itself, and the men who entered in the Registers were those who, for the time being, were uppermost in its councils, and these took care that their opponents should not have the right of registration. Neutral men, such as Humphrey Moseley, who appears to have entered whatever and whenever he wished, were not meddled with; but the small number of men whose names are found in these Registers between 1641–1650, is the strongest possible evidence that they were not open to all impartially. Indeed, the fact is further emphasized by the action which Roger Norton brought against the Company, for striking out of the Register certain grammatical books, which were his copyright. Roger Norton was a Royalist, and the prevailing party in the Company at that time were Roundheads. Thus the entries in the Registers for those years, interesting and valuable as they must always be, represent only a fractional part of the output of the press.
Another Ordinance of the year 1643 must not be passed over, as it shows that amongst the much despised Roundheads, there were some in authority who sympathized with the book lover. It was the outcome of the wholesale sequestration of Royalist property that was then taking place, and let us hope that it had the effect of preventing the dispersal of many a valued library of books. This Ordinance, which was dated the 18th November, 1643, directed that books, evidences, records, and writings, sequestered or taken by distress, were not to be sold, but that an account of such books, etc, was to be rendered to Algernon, Earl of Northumberland, Theophilus, Earl of Lincoln, William, Lord Viscount Say and Seale, John Selden, Francis Rous, Sir Simonds D'Ewes, Samuel Browne, Edward Prideaux, Gilbert Millington, Roger Hill, and Walter Young, or any two of them. Nor is there wanting other evidence that Milton and his literary friends were exerting themselves to preserve what was worth preserving, as witness the order made in 1645 for printing the Codex Alexandrinus, a project that unfortunately came to nothing, and also Milton's own pamphlet on the Liberty of the Press. But in this the great thinker was at least two centuries ahead of his time. The din of battle was too loud and his voice was drowned. Yet for the next four years there was a lull in the persecution of the book-trade, and it was not until the 28th September, 1647, that any further attempt was made to regulate "the press." The Ordinance then issued by Parliament closely resembled those that had preceded it, but it went a step further, by fixing the penalties that were to be inflicted upon offenders. The author of the offending pamphlet or book was to be fined forty shillings, or imprisoned for a term not exceeding forty days, the printer was to be fined twenty shillings or twenty days, besides having his press and implements destroyed, the bookseller or stationer issuing the offending publication was liable to a fine of ten shillings or ten days' imprisonment, and the hawker or pedlar was to forfeit all his stock and be whipped as a common rogue.
Still the cry went up News! More News! and still the warring sectaries, mountebank astrologers, and frenzied politicians flooded the country with pamphlets and, as if the gates of passion had not been opened wide enough, the unfortunate Charles was sent to his doom on Tuesday, the 30th January, 16489. Sober men of all parties were shocked at the deed, and hastened to dissociate themselves from it, while the Royalist press became ten times more bitter than before. The Roundheads were split into two camps, and the Independents, who had now gained the ascendency, were assailed on all sides. Once again the old weapon of repression was brought from the armoury, and on the 20th September, 1649, Parliament passed the most drastic Act against the book-trade that had been known since the Star Chamber decree of 1637. In the preamble attention was called to the "assumed boldness" of the weekly pamphleteers, who, it was stated, "took upon them to publish, and at pleasure to censure the Proceedings of Parliament and Army, and other affairs of State," and to the licentiousness of printing which, in this country and in foreign parts, "hath been" and "ought to be" restrained.
This Act closely followed the model set before it in the Star Chamber decree of 1637, to such a pass had the reformers come. The first clause enacted that no persons were to write, print, or sell scandalous or libellous books under a penalty of ten pounds or forty days' imprisonment for the author, five pounds or twenty days for the printer, two pounds or ten days for the bookseller or stationer. The buyer of any book or pamphlet declared to be seditious was immediately to hand it over to the Lord Mayor, or to some Justice of the Peace of the County, under a penalty of one pound. No news-sheet was to be printed or sold without license, all such licenses to be obtained from the Clerk of the Parliament or the Secretary of the Army. No seditious books or pamphlets were to be sent either by post or carrier under a penalty of forty shillings for every copy found. For the better discovery of malignant (read Royalist) booksellers, magistrates were entrusted with full powers for searching any packs or packages which they might suspect of containing books or pamphlets of a seditious character. The clauses relating to printing contain a surprise. Printing was restricted to the City of London and the two universities, "Provided, That this clause shall not be construed to extend to the Printing Press now used in the City of York, nor to the printing press now used in Finsbury for the printing of Bibles and Psalms." This last was the press set up by William Bentley for printing the edition of the Bible authorised by the Assembly of Divines, which the Stationers' Company had so much resented that, in 1646, they passed a resolution: no journeyman printer of this company who shall work at the printing house in Finsbury, ever to have any pension or gift whatsoever from the Company. The Act further decreed that every printer should enter into bond in £300 to be of good behaviour, and no printer was to set up a press or to import any press or letters without first acquainting the Company of his intention.
Such were the conditions under which the book-trade was carried on from the time of the meeting of the Long Parliament until Oliver Cromwell became Lord Protector, and when it is remembered that the whole of that period was one of warfare and political unrest, the wretched character of the work produced is not to be wondered at. By far the largest part of the output of the press consisted of political and theological pamphlets, amongst which the writings of John Milton and James Howell shine out like stars in the night. Dramatic literature there was none, and the only poetry worth speaking of was the collection of Sir John Suckling's verse in 1646, and Herrick's Hesperides in 1647–8.
The art of printing in England at this period sank to its lowest point. Practically all the presses in London were busy turning out news-sheets as fast as they could print them, and any old type and blocks that could be secured for love or money were used to print them with. The largest printing house in London during this period was that of Miles Flesher and his partners in Little Britain. They also held the King's printing house by virtue of a mortgage executed by Robert Barker. The little good work done was mainly done by them. The press of Felix Kyngston was also a busy one, and his best work was creditable. Richard Cotes was also one of the largest printers of this time, while much of the hack work was turned out by Bernard Alsop, Andrew Coe, and Thomas Brudenell. William Dugard, the head-master of Merchant Taylors' School, set up a press about this time, which will be noticed later on, and William Bentley's press at Finsbury turned out some well printed Bibles in miniature founts.
A marked improvement took place in the book-trade after 1650. The fury of partisan passions had spent itself. The Civil War was practically at an end, and men began to return to their old pursuits and their books. In 1652 the first announcement of the proposed Polyglot Bible was issued. The first volume appeared in September, 1654, the second in 1655, the third in 1656, and the last three in 1657. The printer was Thomas Roycroft of Bartholomew Close, and the type was supplied by the four recognized type founders, the double pica and italic used in the Dedication being that cut by John Day in the sixteenth century. The editor was Brian Walton, Bishop of Chester, and the work received every encouragement from Oliver Cromwell. This undertaking raised Roycroft's printing house to a leading position amongst the London printing houses, and John Ogilby's splendid reprints of the classical authors also came from this press. In 1653, Izaak Walton gave to the world his Complete Angler. In 1655 appeared the first volume of Sir William Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, and in the same year William Dugard printed a folio edition of Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia. But perhaps the best evidence of the revival of the book-trade is found in the two lists of books published by Humphrey Moseley with Brome's Five New Plays, in 1653, and Sir Aston Cokain's Dianea in 1654. The first of these contains one hundred and thirty five items, and the second, one hundred and eighty. Another important publisher of this time was Thomas Whitaker. On the 7th March, 16523, the whole of his copyrights were transferred by his widow and Alexander Brome, whom she had married, to Humphrey Moseley, Richard Thrale, Joshua Kirton, and Samuel Thompson. They fill upwards of four pages of the Stationers' Register, and, in addition to such classics as Tacitus, Aristotle, and Plutarch, included Bacon's Essays, Thos. Jones' Catalogue of Manuscripts at Oxford and Cambridge, Camden's Britannia, Selden's Titles of Honour, Bede's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores, besides the chief theological treatises and many school books. Henry Herringman's entries in the Registers also became more numerous year by year.
With the outbreak of the Civil War all the official printing, such as Acts and Orders of Parliament, Proclamations and the like, was farmed out by the Parliament and the Council of State to those of their supporters who made the best offer. Their number was large, and it is difficult to understand how the appointments were made. We find Joseph Hunscot, Edward Husbands, and John Wright, senior, successively printing for the Parliament. In 1653, Giles Calvert, Henry Hills, and Thomas Brewster were "printers" to the Council of State, Henry Hills and John Field were styled printers to the Parliament of England, while William Dugard and Henry Hills were printers to his Highness the Lord Protector. Later on we meet with Thos. Collins and Abel Roper as printers to the Council of State. Again, in 1660, John Macocke and John Streator were appointed printers to the Parliament, while John Macocke and Francis Tyton were also printers to the House of Lords. The most interesting of these appointments is that of Giles Calvert. The son of a Somersetshire clergyman, he espoused the cause of the Quakers, and became their first publisher. No evidence can be found that leads us to suppose that he joined their ranks, but the correspondence preserved at Devonshire House shows that he was in sympathy with them. He boldly placed his imprint on their writings, and this at a time when the writers and the printers were thrown into prison for their share in the publications. This appointment of Giles Calvert as one of the official "printers," shows clearly that he stood well with Cromwell and those in power, and accounts for his being able to publish Quaker writings as boldly as he did. Several of the men mentioned above were not "printers" by trade, they gave out the work to others, and shared the profits.
During the continuance of the Commonwealth, both printers and book-sellers would seem to have had a quiet time. It had to be something extremely virulent to rouse the anger of the Government. One noticeable feature of the time was the great reduction that took place in the number of news-sheets. Many, of course, died of inanition, but there is no doubt that the clause of the Act of 1649, which compelled all news-sheets to be licensed by the Clerk of the Parliament, had a salutary effect. The Intelligencer and the Newes became the two official papers and were the forerunners of the Oxford and London Gazettes.
With the Restoration the book-trade found itself once more under the heel of the oppressor. Monk's victory was marked by the publication of books and pamphlets, attacking the monarchy in the most violent manner. The old animosities were once more raked up, and the Government determined, if possible, to put a stop to this, and were ably seconded by the Company of Stationers for purely personal reasons. Early in 1660 the Company had passed the following resolution: "The table remarking the great want of a law to restrain the exorbitances of printing and to secure property in copies; and being informed that the Parliament before their adjournment had appointed a committee for that purpose, of which, Mr. Prynne is chairman, and a bill having been presented to him, but nothing therein done, Mr. Warden Crooke is earnestly desired to solicit the business with Mr. Prynne or otherwise as occasion may offer."
Meanwhile, certain of the printers, amongst whom were Roycroft, Hodgkinson, and other important men, were advocating severance from the Company, and the formation of a distinct Company of Printers. The reasons they put forward were that the old Company had become mainly a Company of Booksellers, and was grown so large that none could be Master or Warden until he was well advanced in life, and therefore unable to keep a vigilant eye on the trade.
The Government adopted two methods of dealing with the book-trade. They appointed an Official Surveyor of the Press, and they passed an Act for preventing the frequent abuses in printing, etc., known as 14 Charles II, cap. 33. The person chosen as Surveyor of the Press was Sir Roger L'Estrange, whose only recommendation to the post was that he was an adherent of the Royal party and had suffered for his loyalty. He knew nothing about printing or bookselling, but he was a sycophant and time-server, and carried out his duties with unnecessary cruelty. The Warrant creating Sir R. L'Estrange Surveyor of the Press is here given as it appears in the State Papers:—
CHARLES R.
Whereas in contempt of our laws and authority many treasonous, seditious, and unlicenc'd Pamphlets, Libells, and Papers, are dayly printed vented and dispersed by the obstinate and implacable Enemies of Our Royall person and Government, for redresse and remedy hereof, Our Will and Pleasure is that you prepare a Grant for our Royall signature for the erecting and constituting of an Office for the surveying of the Imprimery, and Printing Presses, and for the preventing of the inconveniences aforesd. And it is Our Will and Pleasure that you prepare a grant for Our Royall signature of ye said Office unto Roger L'Estrange, Esqr, of whose Loyalty and abilities Wee are well assured, and him to authorize and appoint to bee Our Surveyor of all the Imprimery and Printed Pictures and allsoe of all Books and Papers whatsoever hereafter to bee imprinted or reprinted, except Books concerning the Common-Laws of this Realme or Books of History concerning the State of this Realme or any other Books concerning Affairs of State, or concerning Heraldry Titles of Honor and Armes, or the Office of Earl Marshall, or Books of Divinity Phisick Philosophy Arts and Sciences and such other books and Papers as are granted by Our Letters Patents to Our proper and peculiar Printers and usually claimed and imprinted by them by virtue of the sd Letters Patents. To have and to hold the sd Office or Offices of Our sd Surveyor and Licencer for and during the terme of his naturall life to bee excersized by himselfe or his sufficient Deputie or Deputies which said Deputy or Deputies are from time to time to bee approved by the late Arch Bishop of Canterbury and Lord Bp of London or one of them and by Our Principall Secretaries of State or either of them with a sole Priviledge of writing, printing, and publishing all Narratives or relacons not exceeding two sheets of Paper and all Advertisements, Mercuries, Diurnals and Books of Publick Intelligence; and likewise of Printing or appointing to bee printed All Ballads, Maps, Charts, Portraictures and Pictures not formerly printed and all Breifs and Collections, Bills of Ladeing, Play-Bills, and Quacksalvers Bills, of Custom and Excise Bills, Post Office Bills, Auditors Bills, Ticquets and all formes or Blanks of Bonds, Bills, Indentures and Warrants, with power to search for and seize all unlicensed Books and Papers and all seditious, treasonable, schismaticall and scandalous Books and Papers and to seize and apprehend all and every the offenders therein and to bring them before one of our Principall Secretaries or the next Justice of Peace, to bee proceeded against according to law, together with all other Priviledges and Powers necessary, or conducting to our Service in ye Premisses, For which this shall bee your warrant, Given at our Court at Whitehall the 15th day of August 1663, in the 15th year of our reigne.
By His Majties Command
Henry Bennet.
To Our Attorney or Sollicitor Generall.
Dom. S. Papers, Chas. II. Vol. 78. (96)
This document needs no comment. Nor is it necessary to say much about the Act of 1662, except that it was in a large measure a re-enactment of the Star Chamber decree of 1637, and the Act of 1649. York was again expressly mentioned as a place where printing might be carried on, and the printing house of John Streator was exempted from interference. Armed with ample power Sir Roger L'Estrange harassed the printers and booksellers without remorse. One of his unfortunate victims was Elizabeth Calvert, the wife of Giles Calvert, whom he imprisoned several times. Another, was John Twyn, a printer in Cloth Fair, who was tried for high treason and hanged at Tyburn for printing a pamphlet entitled A Treatise of the execution of Justice. That such men as Thomas Roycroft and James Fletcher should have acquiesced in a verdict which they must have known condemned a fellow printer to death, for so trivial an offence, is the saddest part of the story. There is, however, abundant evidence that Sir Roger L'Estrange met with great opposition from the trade, and ultimately gave up his office in disgust.
Subjected to unfair competition and merciless restriction, it is not much to be wondered at that the stationers, whether printers or booksellers, did not bear a very high character for commercial probity, and that George Wither's sketch of the "Dishonest Stationer" in his Schollars Purgatory was applicable to only too many of them. On the other hand, we may hope he also drew his companion picture of the "Honest Stationer" from some of his acquaintance.
The closing years of the period under review were marked by two great disasters, the outbreak of plague in London, in the autumn of 1665, and the great fire of 1666. By the first, trade in the City was brought to a standstill and printers and stationers were reduced to idleness. By the second, the chief printing houses and booksellers' shops, with all their contents, were destroyed, and the ashes of books and manuscripts were carried by the wind as far as Eton and Windsor. Happily for us the Thomason Collection was out of reach of the flames.