A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Larner (William)
LARNER (WILLIAM), bookseller in London, (1) Golden Anchor, neere Paul's Chain, 1641; (2) The Bible in East Cheap, 1642; (3) Blackmoor in Bishopsgate Street, 1650; (4) Blackmoor near Fleet Bridge, 1652 (1641–59). A noted Puritan and Independent bookseller. In 1642 he published a kind of history of Lilburne’s sufferings, which he entitled the Christian Man's Trial. He served in the Parliamentary army, but was invalided home and resumed his trade as a bookseller at the sign of the Blackamoor in Bishopsgate Street. He assisted Henry Robinson, Robert and Richard Overton, and John Lilburne to print books secretly, and is believed to have taken an active part in the working of the Coleman Street Press, 1643 (?)–445; the Martin Mar Priest Press, 1645–46; the Goodman's Fields Press, 1645, and a press in Bishopsgate Street, 1646. Larner's premises were searched on several occasions, and he was at last thrown into prison, where he remained for many months. No more is heard of him after 1659. [Plomer, Secret Printing during the Civil War; Library, October, 1904, p. 374 et seq.]