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ever I heard tell that any of the king's hath been handled,’ and expressing a fear that he would lay false information against her. London was, on the contrary, a ‘humble suitor for my lady and her sisters’ (Suppression of the Monasteries, pp. 227–31); indeed, coarse and vile as he was, he does not seem to have been ill-natured, his harshness in various cases proceeding rather from a desire to promote his own interests than from spite. As a Wykehamist he disgraced himself by furnishing John Leland the antiquary with some false and slanderous notes, now in the Bodleian Library, concerning William of Wykeham (, Life of Wykeham, p. 288, 3rd edit.).

On the death of Cromwell in 1540, London attached himself to Stephen Gardiner [q. v.], bishop of Winchester, was appointed canon of Windsor, and was active in persecuting those who fell under the Act of Six Articles. He took part in fresh proceedings against the Oxford Lutherans, though he chiefly busied himself at Windsor, where he acted as Gardiner's chief agent. Three men were burnt at Windsor through his contrivance, he employed spies to gather information against others, and at his suggestion bills were preferred before the justices at sessions against Cranmer's chaplains and preachers. He also procured information and prepared a case against the archbishop, but the king hearing of these practices bade Cranmer himself, and such others as he pleased, examine the truth of the accusations. Among papers of the conspirators that were seized and sent to the king were certain letters from London. This ‘stout and filthy prebendary,’ as Parker called him (Memorials of Cranmer, i. 158), was examined with two of his associates before the council, and being convicted of perjury was stripped of his dignities, and ordered to ride with his face to a horse's tail through Windsor, Reading, and Newbury, and to stand in the pillory in each town with a paper declaring his offence on his forehead. This was done, and he was then committed to the Fleet prison, where he died soon afterwards in 1543.

 LONDON, RICHARD (fl. 1193), chronicler. [See ]

 LONDON, WILLIAM (fl. 1658), bibliographer, was a bookseller of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and apparently undertook some publishing on his own account in partnership with London firms. In 1655 Hoole's 'Phraseologia Anglo-Latina' appeared, with the imprint 'London, printed by E. Coles for William London, bookseller, Newcastle.' London is best known by a very rare catalogue of English literature, which he drew up in 1658. Its title runs, 'A Catalogue of the most vendible Books in England orderly and alphabetically digested … the like Work never yet performed by any. Varietas Delectat,' London, 1658, 4to. The signature 'William London' attached to the dedication has been absurdly explained as that of William Juxon, bishop of London. Besides the dedication, addressed among others to the 'wise, learned, and studious in the Northern Counties of Northumberland, Bppk of Durham, Westmoreland, and Cumberland,' there is an 'Epistle to the most candid and ingenious reader,' and a very spirited and well-written 'Introduction to the Use of Books, or a short Essay upon the Value and Benefits of Learning and Knowledge.' London arranges his titles under the headings Divinity, History, Physic and Chirurgerie, Law, Romances, Poems, Plays, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. A supplement of new books issued between August 1657 and June 1658 is appended. In 1660 he brought out 'A Catalogue of New Books by way of Supplement to the former, being such as have been printed from that time till Easter Term, 1660,' London, 31 May 1660, 4to.

A brief ‘Catalogue of Certaine Bookes,’ published between 1626 and 1631, was issued in the latter year, and in 1655 ‘A Catalogue of … Divinity Books … printed about twenty yeares past.’ But London's claim to have produced the earliest catalogue of any bibliographical pretensions is fully justified. His undertaking attracted attention. In 1663 Francis Hawkins [q. v.] the Jesuit issued a new edition of his ‘Youths Behaviour.’ and in an appended ‘table’ or glossary of scientific terms used in the volume he inserted the entry, ‘Catalogue: a roule of names,or register, a cataloging of Books which Mr. London, bookseller of Newcastle, hath published.’ 