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 was impugned by an interested rival chronicler, Richard Grafton [q. v.], who had anticipated him in bringing out a somewhat similar ‘Abridgment of the Chronicles of England’ in 1562. This was dedicated to Lord Robert Dudley, and was often reprinted. In the 1566 edition Grafton sneered ‘at the memories of superstitious foundacions, fables, and lyes foolishly Stowed together.’ In the dedication to the edition of 1567 Stow punningly, by way of retort, deplored the ‘thundering noice of empty tonnes and unfruitful graftes of Momus offspring’ by which his work was menaced. The warfare was long pursued in prefaces to successive editions of the two men's handbooks. Stow finally denounced with asperity all Grafton's historical work (cp. Address to the Reader, 1573). There seems little doubt that his capacity as an historian was greater than Grafton's, and that the victory finally rested with him (, Typogr. Antiq. ed. Dibdin, iii. 422–7).

But Stow had other troubles. His studies inclined him to conservatism in religion, and he never accepted the reformed doctrine with much enthusiasm. His zeal as a collector of documents laid him open to the suspicion of Elizabeth's ministers. In 1568 he was charged with being in possession of a copy of the Duke of Alva's manifesto against Elizabeth which the Spanish ambassador had disseminated in London. He was examined by the council, but was not punished (, p. 651). Soon afterwards—in February 1568–9—his house was searched for recently published papistical books, and a list was made of those found. The officials of the ecclesiastical commission who made the search reported that they found, in addition to the forbidden literature, ‘foolish fabulous books of old print as of Sir Degory Triamour,’ ‘old written English chronicles,’ ‘miscellanea of divers sorts both touching physic, surgery, and herbs, with medicines of experience,’ and ‘old fantastical books’ of popish tendencies (cf., Grindal, pp. 184, 516). In 1570 a brother gave information which led to another summons before the ecclesiastical commission, but the unspecified charge, which apparently again impugned Stow's religious orthodoxy, was satisfactorily confuted. In the same year Stow accused a fellow-tailor named Holmes of slandering his wife, and Holmes was ordered to pay Stow twenty shillings. Thenceforth he was unmolested, and inspired his fellow citizens with so much confidence that in 1585 he was one of the collectors in the city of the money required to furnish the government with four thousand armed men.

Stow pursued his historical and antiquarian work with undiminished vigour throughout the period of his persecution by the council and his bitter controversy with Grafton. Archbishop Parker's favour was not alienated by the allegations of romanism made against him. With Parker's aid Stow saw through the press for the first time Matthew of Westminster's ‘Flores Historiarum’ in 1567, Matthew Paris's ‘Chronicle’ in 1571, and Thomas Walsingham's ‘Chronicle’ in 1574. In 1580 he dedicated to Leicester the first edition of his original contribution to English history entitled ‘The Chronicles of England from Brute unto this present yeare of Christ, 1580. Collected by J. Stow, citizen of London,’ London, by ‘R. Newberie at the assignement of H. Bynneman,’ 4to. The useful work, in a new edition four years later, first bore the more familiar title of ‘The Annales of England faithfully collected out of the most authenticall Authors, Records, and other Monuments of Antiquitie from the first inhabitation untill … 1592,’ London (by Ralph Newbery), 1592, 4to. The dedication was now addressed to Archbishop Whitgift. The text consists of more than thirteen hundred pages, and concludes with an appendix ‘of the universities of England.’ The ‘Annales’ were reissued by Stow within a few days of his death in 1605 still in quarto, ‘encreased and continued … untill this present yeare 1605.’ It was re-edited, continued, and considerably altered in 1615 by Edmund Howes [q. v.], with an appended account of the universities, to which Sir George Buc supplied a description of ‘the university of London’ (i.e. of the Inns of Court and other educational establishments of the metropolis). A new edition by Howes appeared in 1631.

Meanwhile Stow was employed in revising the second edition of Holinshed's ‘Chronicle,’ which was published in January 1585–7. His final work was ‘A Survay of London contayning the originall antiquity and increase, moderne estates, and description of that citie … also an apologie (or defence) against the opinion of some men concerning the citie, the greatnesse thereof. … With an appendix containing in Latine, Libellum de situ et nobilitate Londini, by W. Fitzstephen in the Raigne of Henry the Second, b.l., J. Wolfe,’ London, 1598, 4to. It was dedicated to Robert Lee, lord mayor, and to the citizens of London, and is an exhaustive and invaluable record of Elizabethan London. ‘Increased with divers notes of antiquity,’ it was republished by Stow in 1603. A reprint of the 1603 edition, edited by William J. Thoms, appeared in 1876 with modernised orthography, and edited by Henry Morley [q. v.] in the