In addition to theological work, of which he printed a large amount, he was also one of the assigns of John More, and by right of that printed various law books, and the firm at this time had also some share in printing the Psalms in meter. The full activity of the press is difficult to trace, since many of the books that came from it between 1601 and 1640 are only to be identified by the initials or ornaments, having only the publisher's name in the imprint, whilst many others bore only the printer's initials, such as J. H. for John Haviland, A. G. for Ann Griffin, and G. P. or E. P. for George or Elizabeth Purslowe. John Haviland's chief claim to remembrance rests on the numerous editions of the writings of Sir Francis Bacon which came from his press. First and foremost was the Latin edition of his Works, a handsome folio printed in 1623. In 1625 he printed a quarto edition of the Essays. In 1627 appeared the Sylva Sylvarum, and he also printed the Latin and English editions of the Historia Naturalis in 1622 and 1638. Haviland's death occurred between II October 1638, when he made his will, and 20 November in the same year, when it was proved. The will is a lengthy but interesting document. In it he left a bequest of £50 to Mistress Griffin, a like sum to Elizabeth Purslowe, and 20s. for a ring to Edward Griffin -i. e. Edward Griffin the second. It also contains the following clause, which may or may not refer to the Eliot's Court printing house: ' Item my will and mynde is that my executor John Wright 'the elder doe not intermeddle with the lettinge, settinge, 'contracting for or disposing of my printing howse or the ' materialls thereof, but that he leave it to be disposed of ' and ordered by my brother Miles Flesher, and my friend 'Andrew Crooke. And my desire is that they contract with ' and sett my said printinge howse and materialls thereof to 'Thomas Broad printer for such yearly reasonable sum of money as the said Miles Flesher and Andrew Crooke shall in their discrecons think fit' (P.C.C. 158, Lee). Now the only Thomas Broad known in the annals of printing in England was the York printer of that name who is first heard of in 1644. Nothing is known of his previous history. His name does not appear in the Transcript of the Stationers' Registers before 1640, and his name is never found in connexion with the Eliot's Court printing house. If the Eliot's Court business is the one referred to in the above passage from Haviland's will, it is certain that Broad did not take it over, or if he did he sublet it to the persons who were then in occupation; but on the whole it appears more probable that it referred to one of the other businesses in which Haviland was interested, because his death made no change at Eliot's Court. Edward Griffin the second, whose name is first found in the imprints in the year of Haviland's death, dropped into his place, and in partnership with Elizabeth Purslowe, the widow of George Purslowe who had died in 1632, continued to carry on the business during the Civil War and Commonwealth periods, and amongst the books and pamphlets issued at that time, the following have been traced to Eliot's Court: Dean Colet's Daily Devotions, a duodecimo with an engraved title-page dated 1640 and a printed title-page dated 1641, and printed by E[dward] G[riffin] for John Benson; Epithalamium auraicoBritannicum, 4to, 1641, recognized by the device at the end; A Letter from the Lord of Leicester, printed for John Wright 27 September 1642; The nature of a Sacred Covenant, printed by E. G. for John Rothwell and Giles Calvert, 1643, 4to; An Ordinance of the Lords and Commons, printed for John Wright, 1644, 4to; The propositions of the Lords and Commons for a safe and well-grounded Peace, printed for John Wright at the King's Head in the old Bayley 17th July 1646; and many others. Edward Griffin the second died in 1652, and was succeeded in the business by his widow Sarah, and Elizabeth Purslowe died in 1656. In the Hearth Tax return made in 1662, under Eliot's Court, Sarah Griffin was assessed at one guinea for seven hearths [P.R.O. Lay Subsidy 147/627], and in 1668, in a return of the number of presses and workmen employed in the printing houses of London, Mrs. Griffin was found to have 2 presses, I apprentice, and 6 workmen. As late as 1674 books are found with the imprint of Sarah Griffin and Bennett Griffin, presumably her son, but after 1660 the fashion in printing changed considerably: the old blocks and pictorial initials disappear, and it becomes well-nigh impossible to trace the work of the Eliot's Court printing house with any certainty or to speak positively as to its ultimate fate. In a second paper, something will be said of the various ornaments, initial letters, and devices used by these printers. CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF PRINTERS AT ELIOT'S COURT, OLD BAILEY, 1584-1674 1584-1586. Arnold Hatfield, N. Newton, J. Jackson, and Edmund Bollifant alias Carpenter. 1586-1596. Hatfield, Jackson, Bollifant. 1596-1602. Hatfield, Bollifant. 1602-1609. Hatfield, M. Bradwood. 1609-1611. Hatfield, Edward Griffin I (M. Bradwood, Eton). 1611-1612. Hatfield, Griffin, Bradwood. 1612-1618. Griffin, Bradwood, G. Purslowe. 1618-1620. Griffin, Purslowe. 1621-1638. John Haviland, Ann Griffin, Eliz. Purslowe. 1639-1656. Edward Griffin II, Sarah Griffin (widow of Edward Griffin II), Eliz. Purslowe. 1657-1674. Sarah Griffin and Bennett Griffin. T AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER IN 1727 "THE ENGLISH HERMIT' BY ARUNDELL ESDAILE HE British Museum has recently acquired a copy of the first (1727) edition of the well-known' Robinsoniad', variously quoted as 'The Hermit', The English Hermit', or 'The Adventures of Philip Quarll', which has a variant title and preliminary leaves, apparently hitherto unknown, which reveal the author's name. This copy is in contemporary calf (rebacked), bearing the Montagu crest stamp and the Ditton Park bookplate. The story of the issue, so far as it can be made out, is curious, and seems worth recording. The sheets of text in the ordinary copies, of which the Museum has two, and in this (hereafter called I and II respectively) are identical. The preliminaries, however, differ widely. In I they are as follows: (i) Frontispiece; (ii) Title-page; (iii-vi) Signed A3, 4 [5, 6], and paged [v] vi-xi [xii]: preface, commendatory poem, and errata ; (vii) Map of the Island; (viii) Explanation of the Map. The make-up of these leaves is very curious; the inner four are regular, and the last two, the map and 'Explanation', are a true pair; the frontispiece is independent (as one would expect, had it not been that the map is not); there remains the title-page, and this is a pair with the first leaf of text, which is signed B. The last leaf of B, B8, or more exactly speaking B9, is a single leaf, whose butt is visible after BI. I can only suppose that for some reason the first title-page to be printed N and the first leaf of text were both cancelled, and that the printer reprinted them together on a quarter sheet. But this does not bear on the difference between the two issues, with which I am dealing. In II we find (i) and (v-viii) unaltered; but in place of (ii-iv) there are four new leaves, of a somewhat rougher and whiter paper, containing a quite different title, a dedication (there being none in I), and a different preface. The original (v) and (vi) are sewn in, the butts of their pairs remaining. The new leaves are very rudely printed, as if by a country jobber. When the relevant parts of the two issues are set out side by side we shall see their differences more clearly. I TITLE The Hermit: Or, the Unparalled [sic] Sufferings and Surprising Adventures of Mr. Philip Quarll, an Englishman. Who was lately discovered by Mr. Dorrington a Bristol Merchant, upon an uninhabited Island in the South-Sea; where he has lived above Fifty Years, without any human Assistance, still continues to reside, and will not come away. Containing I, His Conferences with Those who found him out, to whom he recites the most material Circumstances of his Life. ... With a curious Map of the Island, and other Cuts. Westminster: Printed by J. 1727. II TITLE The English Hermit, | Or the Unparalell'd and Surprizing Adventures of one Philip Quarll; | Who was lately found in an Uninhabited Island in the South Sea, near Mexico; where he has liv'd fifty Years unknown and remote | from humane Assistance, and where he still remains and intends to end his Days. || With an Account of his Miraculous coming there...as also of his being accidentally found out by an English Merchant. . . . || With his Conversation and extream kind manner of | Entertaining of the said Persons, to whom... he gave at | Parting a Mapp of the Island of his own Drawing, | and a Memorial of his Birth and Education, of all the... Transactions of his Life. . . . || Likewise of the... Events happened in the Island since his being there, carefully gathered out of the above said Memoirs in thr[ee] | Books by P. L. Gent. Anno Domini, 1727. || [Four lines of verse.] |