348
HISTORY OF PRINTING.
1573, RicHABD Grafton. Of the memoirs of this typo^pber, who was one of the most eminent of his time, there is somewliat more to be recovered than there is of the greater part of the early professors of the art of printing. He wosacitizen and grocer of London.was descended of a good family, and appears to have been brought up as a merchant, as were also his partners, Edward Whitchurch and John Butler. The two last mentioned persons are said to have exchanged their commercial for a typographical employment, from the circumstances already noticed at pages 266, ante. As Grafton was a scholar, so he was lilcewise an author. In 1648, he printed a magnificent edition of Edward Halle's Chronicle, the greater part of which, he states, he wrote himself. In 1562, was printed Grafton's Abridgement of the Chronicles, of which also new editions appeared in 1563, 1564, and 1572. In 1569, Grafton published his Chronicles at large, some parts of which were rather unfairly censured by Buchanan. Soon after the execution of Thomas Cromwell, earl of Essex, which took place on the 28th of July, 1549, Grafton was imprisoned for six weeks in the Fleet, for printing Matthew's Bible, and the Great Bible without notes ; and before his release, he was bound in a penalty of £100 that he should neither sell nor imprint, nor cause to be imprinted, any more bibles until the king and clergy should agree upon a translation. He was also smnmoned before the council upon the charge of printing a ballad in favour of lord Cromwell, which bishop Bonner, with some- thing of negligence, and more of ing^ratitude, endeavoured to aggravate ; but Audley, the lord chancellor, changed the discourse, and Grafton escaped. He was also presented with Whit- church, for an infringement of the Six Articles, but here again they were fortunate; and at various times they received royal patents for the printing of the church service books and primer, both in Latin and English.
Grafton was soon appointed printer to prince Edward, and on the 23d of April, 1646, after he became king, he had a special patent granted to him for the printing of all the statute books. Another patent, dated the 18th of December, 1648, was also granted to him and Whitchurch, by which they were authorized to take up and provide for one year, printers, compositors, &c., together with paj>er, ink, presses, Sec, at reason- able rates and prices. Ames supposes, that the Richard Grafton, grocer, who in 1653, 1554, 1556, and 1657, sat in parliament for the city of London, was the printer; but Herbert doubts this, on the ground that he was excepted in the general pardon issued when queen Mary was crowned, in 1553. Of Grafton's sickness, death, or burial, there are not any particulars extant, nor indeed is there any notice of him after 1672, when he brake his leg in two places by a fall, which made him lame until his decease. It cannot be imagined that Grafton died in indi- gence, since Richard Cooke, Esq., Clarenceux King of Arms, confirmed armorial ensigns to
Richard his third son, in 1684, with the addition of a crest. This person, however, was of some eminence in the law, and was about the above period, retained as counsel for the stationers' company.
The residence of Richard Grafton was in a part of the dissolved house of the Grey Friars, which was afterwards granted by king Edward VI. for a hospital for the maintenance and edu- cation of orphans, called Christ's Hospital. Grafton's typographical labours were sixty-two different productions, and as a printer his publi- cations are distinguished both for their utility and their beauty.
The device of Richard Grafton was a rebus or pun upon his name, a tun, with a fruit tree passing out at the centre, with the motto in Latin, " By their fruits ye shall know them."
1572. Hyloels dictionarie, newlye corrected, amended, set in order and enlarged, with many names of men, tmtmes, heattes, foules, Jishet, trees, shrubbes, herbes, fruites, instruments. Ire. by which you may finde the Latin or Frenche of any Englishe worde you will. By John Higgins, laic student in Oxeford. Over the title are Uiese lines printed.
To write, and many please, is'mucb.
To please, not -write, is paine : TYien rather write, and please the good.
Than spend thy time in vain.
Printed by Thomas Marshe, at the sign of the Prince's Arms, near St. Dunstan's church, Fleet- street.
1672. Died, John Crispin, or Crespen, an ingenious printer of this century, and a native of Arras, in France He was advocate to the P^i^lu^ ment of Paris; but afterwards, forming a friend- ship with Beza, he embraced the reformed religion, and retired to Geneva, where he gained great reputation by his printing, and, according to Bayle, died of the plague. He is allowed to be a man of great learning, and an useful and accurate printer. Crispin was the author of a Greek Lexicon. Geneva, 1762, 4to, and re- printed in folio.
1672. Of the labour and expense incurred in the binding of books at this period, we have an illustration in the copy of archbishop Parker's De Antiquitale Ecelesite BriUmniea:, in the royal library in the British museum, presented to
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