Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Denham, Henry
DENHAM, HENRY (fl. 1591), printer, was presented as an apprentice with Richard Tottel, 14 Oct. 1556 (Arber, Transcript, i. 40). The first book bearing his imprint is a very small edition of the Psalter, with marginal notes, in 1559. He was made free of the Stationers' Company 30 Aug. 1560 (ib. i. 159). In 1564 he printed ‘The Treasure of Gladnesse’ for John Charlewood, and between July 1563 and 1564 he was licensed to print ‘A Godly Learned Sermon made this last Lente at Wynsore by master Thomas Cole,’ which, says Arber, is ‘the first entry of a contemporary sermon’ (ib. i. 237). He was fined in 1564 for printing unlicensed primers, in 1565 and 1584 for using indecorous language, and for improper behaviour on other occasions, which conduct did not prevent him from being called to the livery of the Stationers' Company in 1572, in serving as renter in 1580 and 1581, and being appointed under-warden in 1586 and 1588. He lived in Paternoster Row, at the sign of the Star, which, with the motto ‘Os homini sublime dedit,’ is to be found at the end of many of his books. He also lived in Whitecross Street, and was assignee to William Seres, whose device of the bear and ragged staff with garter he used. In 1585 he lived in Aldersgate Street at the sign of the Star. Herbert says ‘he was an exceedingly neat printer, and the first who used the semi-colon with propriety’ (Ames, Typogr. Antiq. ii. 942). During thirty years he produced a large number of books, among which may be mentioned the first edition of the New Testament in Welsh, 1567, 4to; the first English translation of Ovid's ‘Heroycall Epistles,’ by George Turbervile; ‘An Alvearie or Quadruple Dictionarie,’ by John Baret, 1580, folio; ‘The Monument of Matrones,’ by Thomas Bentley, 1582, 3 vols. 4to; and the second edition of Holinshed's ‘Chronicles,’ 1586–7, 3 vols. folio. He printed for and in association with Tottel, Newbery, Toy, and others. He gave the copyright of eleven books for the poor of the Stationers' Company in January 1584 (Arber, ii. 789). The last book printed by him is dated 1591. The time of his death is unknown.
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. (Herbert), ii. 942–964; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. iii. 551, 568; Timperley's Encyclopædia, pp. 297, 347, 389, 441; Bigmore and Wyman's Bibliography of Printing, i. 162; Cat. of English Books in the British Museum printed to 1640, 1884, 3 vols.]