Page:Plomer Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers 1907.djvu/25

Rh Catalogue of Manuscripts at Oxford and Cambridge, Camden's Britannia, Selden's Titles of Honour, Bede's Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores, besides the chief theological treatises and many school books. Henry Herringman's entries in the Registers also became more numerous year by year.

With the outbreak of the Civil War all the official printing, such as Acts and Orders of Parliament, Proclamations and the like, was farmed out by the Parliament and the Council of State to those of their supporters who made the best offer. Their number was large, and it is difficult to understand how the appointments were made. We find Joseph Hunscot, Edward Husbands, and John Wright, senior, successively printing for the Parliament. In 1653, Giles Calvert, Henry Hills, and Thomas Brewster were "printers" to the Council of State, Henry Hills and John Field were styled printers to the Parliament of England, while William Dugard and Henry Hills were printers to his Highness the Lord Protector. Later on we meet with Thos. Collins and Abel Roper as printers to the Council of State. Again, in 1660, John Macocke and John Streator were appointed printers to the Parliament, while John Macocke and Francis Tyton were also printers to the House of Lords. The most interesting of these appointments is that of Giles Calvert. The son of a Somersetshire clergyman, he espoused the cause of the Quakers, and became their first publisher. No evidence can be found that leads us to suppose that he joined their ranks, but the correspondence preserved at Devonshire House shows that he was in sympathy with them. He boldly placed his imprint on their writings, and this at a time when the writers and the printers were thrown into prison for their share in the publications. This appointment of Giles Calvert as one of the official "printers," shows clearly that he stood well with Cromwell and those in power, and accounts for his being able to publish Quaker writings as boldly as he did. Several of the men mentioned above were not "printers" by trade, they gave out the work to others, and shared the profits.

During the continuance of the Commonwealth, both printers and book-sellers would seem to have had a quiet time. It had to be something