Page:The Library, volume 5, series 3.djvu/78

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66
A LAWSUIT AS TO THE

With regard to the five thousand copies of Banyan's 'Grace Abounding,' Braddyl admitted printing these, but maintained that Ponder had ruined the market by pawning fifteen hundred of a former impression to a goldsmith, who put them on sale at such a cheap rate that about two thousand eight hundred copies of Braddyl's impression remained unsold, and he had never been paid for the paper and printing. He denied having printed any greater number of any of these books than Ponder had commissioned him to print, and wound up by averring that he had nothing whatever to do with the putting forth of the Third Part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress.'

The witnesses examined on Ponder's account whose depositions are on record were Awnsham Churchill, bookseller, of Pater Noster Row; Peter Parker, bookseller, of St. Michael, Cornhill; and Nicholas Boddington, bookseller, at the sign of the Golden Ball in Duck Lane. The names of two others, Nathaniel Rolls and Roger Meredith, appear on the depositions, but their evidence is not given.

These witnesses were asked if they knew the plaintiff and defendant, and how long they had known them; what impressions the defendant Braddyl had made, what quantity of each he had printed, what numbers he had sold and to whom, and at what price he sold them, and whether they knew that Braddyl was the printer of the Third Part of the 'Pilgrim's Progress.' They were further invited to say what agreement was made between the parties, and to declare what they