11 May 1616 Vautor supplicated for the degree of Mus. Bac. at Oxford, which was granted on condition of his composing a choral hymn for six voices; he was admitted on 4 July. At this time George Villiers, the son of Vautor's patrons, was rising in the king's favour, and in 1619 he was created Marquis of Buckingham, upon which Vautor dedicated to him a collection of twenty-two madrigals, entitled ‘The First Set; being Songs of diverse Ayres and Natures for Five and Sixe parts; Apt for Vyols and Voices.’ Among the pieces are two fa-las, a ‘Farewell to Oriana’ (Queen Elizabeth), an elegy on Prince Henry, and another on Sir Thomas Beaumont of Stoughton, Leicestershire. These had evidently been composed at an earlier period; and Vautor mentions in the dedication that ‘some were composed in your tender yeares, and in your most worthy father's house.’ Nothing further is recorded of Vautor, and no other compositions by him are known, either in print or manuscript. None of Vautor's music has been reprinted; but two specimens of the verses, ‘Blush not rude present’ and ‘Sweet Suffolk Owl,’ are included in Mr. A. H. Bullen's ‘Lyrics from the Songbooks of the Elizabethan Age.’ His collection is very rare. Anthony Wood was not aware that he had published anything; and Hawes, in reprinting Morley's ‘Triumphs of Oriana’ (1814), did not include Vautor's ‘Farewell to Oriana’ among the supplementary numbers. A list of the twenty-two pieces is given in Rimbault's ‘Bibliotheca Madrigaliana.’
[Vautor's collection of madrigals in the British Museum; Boase and Clark's Register of the University of Oxford, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 148, where he is inaccurately called John Vauler; Foster's Alumni Oxon. p. 1539; Davey's History of English Music, pp. 215, 224.]
VAUTROLLIER, THOMAS (d. 1587?), printer, was a Huguenot of learning, who came to London from Paris or Rouen about the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He was admitted a brother of the Stationers' Company on 2 Oct. 1564, and probably worked as a servant to some printer till 1570, when he established a press in Blackfriars. His first publication was ‘A Booke containing divers Sortes of Hands,’ 1570. In 1578 he printed ‘Special and Chosen Sermons of D. Martin Luther,’ without a license, and was fined 10s., and in the following year was fined for a similar offence. In the general assembly of the church of Scotland, 1580, a recommendation was made to the king and council that Vautrollier should receive a ‘licence and priviledge’ as a printer in Scotland. The exact date of his arrival in Edinburgh is not known. He brought a large supply of books with him, and traded as a bookseller for several years before he started a press. This appears from a complaint made against him by Charteris and others, so that in 1580 the town council demanded custom for the books he imported (Town Council Records). Vautrollier, when he came to Scotland, brought a letter of introduction from Dr. Daniel Rogers [q. v.], one of the clerks of the privy council, to George Buchanan (1506–1582) [q. v.] During his absence from London the press there was in full operation under the management of his wife. It appears that Vautrollier returned to London, and shortly afterwards had to leave for Edinburgh again, as it is supposed he had incurred the displeasure of the Star-chamber by the publication of Bruno's ‘Last Tromp,’ dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney. On his way to Scotland he was plundered by robbers. Having succeeded in establishing his press in Edinburgh in 1584, Vautrollier was patronised by James VI, and printed the first of the king's published works, ‘The Essayes of a Prentise in the Divine Art of Poesie,’ 1584, and, at the desire of the king, an English translation of Du Bartas's ‘History of Judith,’ 1584—both issued ‘cum privilegio regali.’
In 1584 Vautrollier printed six distinct works, and in the following year only two. In 1586 he returned to London, having obtained his pardon, taking with him a manuscript copy of John Knox's ‘History of the Reformation,’ which he ‘put to press, but all the copies were seized [by the order of Archbishop Whitgift] before the work was completed’ (Works of John Knox, vol. i. p. xxxii). No perfect copy of this edition is extant.
After his return he dedicated to Thomas Randolph (1523–1590) [q. v.], master and comptroller of the queen's posts, a work which he translated and printed, titled ‘An excellent and learned treatise of Apostasi … Translated out of French into English by Vautrollier the printer.’ In this dedication, which is dated ‘from my poor house in the Black ffryers the 9th May 1587,’ he acknowledges to Randolph ‘the great duty wherein I stand bound to your worship for your great favours and assistance in my distresses and afflictions.’ Vautrollier remained in London till the time of his death, which took place some time before 4 March 1587–8, for on that day the Stationers' Company ordered ‘that Mrs. Vautrollier, late wife of Tho. Vautrollier, deceased, shall not hereafter print anye manner of book or books whatsoever, as well by reason that her husband was noe printer at
