The Distribution of Almanacks in the Second Half of the Seventeenth
Century
by
Cyprian Blagden
NATURE HAS ARRANGED THAT, WHERE THE odds against survival are heavy, the seeds or the eggs
through which survival is achieved are proliferated; in the world of the printed word, human
activity achieves a corresponding balance by destroying a very high proportion of the books
which are produced in the greatest quantities. This must surely be a cause for rejoicing in
the twentieth century—so far at least as contemporary production is concerned; but it
can be a cause of difficulty, and even of error, when we move back 250 years or more and are
forced to rely, for instance, on a single mutilated copy of a school book or even on hearsay
for our knowledge of a once widely distributed and frequently handled publication. The study
of Literature is probably unaffected by this; but our understanding of what people were
reading is made more difficult. Moreover, with the destruction of popular literature went
(though for somewhat different reasons) the almost total destruction of the records of its
manufacture and distribution; and the survival of quantitative evidence dating back into the
seventeenth century is rare enough to be exciting.
It happened that, in 1603, the Stationers' Company received from James I the sole right of
printing—amongst other popular books—Almanacks and Prognostications; and there has
survived one of the ledgers[1]—a Stock Book dating from sixty years later—in which were maintained
the basic records of the trading company within the Company. For the first twenty-four years
of the Stock Book's use a detailed account was kept of the almanacks delivered to the
Treasurer, the 'manager' of the English Stock of the Stationers' Company; from these details,
and from such other contemporary evidence as I have been able
to find, I
want to show the size and importance of one kind of popular book production during the reigns
of Charles II and James II.
A certain amount of information about the Company's policy in the production and sale of
almanacks from 1603 can be found in the Court Books,[2] and there are useful items of information in the Treasurer's
Journal which covers the years from 1653 to 1698. Mr Bosanquet has written, in general terms
and out of his great experience of handling surviving examples, an account[3] of almanacks during the seventeenth
century. I will therefore concentrate upon the quantitative detail which survives in the Stock
Book and try to answer as many as possible of the following questions: How many copies of each
almanack were printed in London and how many almanacks sold well enough to be reprinted? What
proportions remained unsold? Which were printed at Cambridge and in what quantities? What
evidence is there for other printing of almanacks—either in London or elsewhere, either
surreptitious or legitimate? What were the costs of setting and printing the texts and of
printing the plates, and what was the price of paper? How much were the authors paid? At what
prices did the Treasurer sell to London booksellers and what prices did country booksellers
and the public normally pay? Finally, what profit did the almanack monopoly earn for the
partners in the English Stock?
The answers to some of these questions are simple and can be given most easily in tabular
form. But, since it would be fatiguing to supply all the figures in all the years for which
they are available, I have, in Table I, shown the details of first printings, reprints and
unsold copies for nine years only—for the first three years, for the next three (which
are also the first three after the Fire) and for the last three. The year at the head of each
column is, of course, that for which and not in
which the almanacks were printed.
In order to provide a complete picture for one almanack and an indication of the steadiness
of the almanack business (the evidence being available for a much longer period), I have, in
Table II given the numbers printed of Andrews for all but two of the twenty-four years; and in
Table III the value, at wholesale prices, of all the almanacks delivered to the Treasurer from
the winter of 1663/4 to the winter of 1713/4, the last of the Stuart era. Table IV lists those
almanacks which appeared after 1669 and disappeared before 1685, and which therefore do not
find places in Table I.
Table II. Total deliveries of Andrews' Almanacks, 1664-1684
1664 |
12,500 |
1672 |
15,000 |
1680 |
27,000 |
1665 |
12,500 |
1673 |
21,000 |
1681 |
not known
[4]
|
1666 |
10,000 |
1674 |
17,500 |
1682 |
not known
|
1667 |
10,000 |
1675 |
17,500 |
1683 |
30,000 |
1668 |
14,500 |
1676 |
30,000 |
1684 |
25,000 |
1669 |
15,000 |
1677 |
25,000 |
1685 |
25,000 |
1670 |
15,000 |
1678 |
30,000 |
1686 |
25,000 |
1671 |
16,000 |
1679 |
30,000 |
1687 |
20,000 |
Table III. Value, at wholesale prices and to the nearest £, of all almanacks
delivered to the Treasurer, 1663/4-1713/4
|
£ |
|
£ |
|
£ |
1663/4 |
2,506 |
1680/1 |
3,062 |
1697/8 |
2,728 |
1664/5 |
2,651 |
1681/2 |
2,903 |
1698/9 |
2,816 |
1665/6 |
2,418 |
1682/3 |
3,418 |
1699/1700 |
3,024 |
1666/7 |
2,650[5]
|
1683/4 |
3,212 |
1700/1 |
3,199 |
1667/8 |
2,688 |
1684/5 |
3,189 |
1701/2 |
3,200 |
1668/9 |
2,333 |
1685/6 |
2,993 |
1702/3 |
3,225 |
1669/70 |
2,241 |
1686/7 |
3,081 |
1703/4 |
3,202 |
1670/1 |
2,487 |
1687/8 |
3,107 |
1704/5 |
3,214 |
1671/2 |
2,537 |
1688/9 |
2,877 |
1705/6 |
3,069 |
1672/3 |
2,582 |
1689/90 |
3,281 |
1706/7 |
2,960 |
1673/4 |
2,455 |
1690/1 |
3,248 |
1707/8 |
2,904 |
1674/5 |
2,521 |
1691/2 |
2,990 |
1708/9 |
3,067 |
1675/6 |
2,519 |
1692/3 |
3,170 |
1709/10 |
2,763 |
1676/7 |
2,685 |
1693/4 |
3,112 |
1710/1 |
2,767 |
1677/8 |
2,645 |
1694/5 |
3,064 |
1711/2 |
3,694[6]
|
1678/9 |
2,605 |
1695/6 |
3,017 |
1712/3 |
4,150 |
1679/80 |
3,015 |
1696/7 |
2,910 |
1713/4 |
4,397 |
Table IV. Almanacks which were alive only after 1669 and before 1685
|
|
|
|
|
Rate per
|
Name
|
Wing no. A
|
Began
|
|
Ended
|
1,000 |
Atkinson |
1305 |
1670 |
|
1677 |
£8 |
not printed 1675 |
Smith |
2395 |
1673 |
1675 |
6 |
Oxford |
2676 |
1673 |
only |
|
10 |
also 8 reams of Sheet almanacks |
London |
1925 |
1673 |
|
1674 |
8 |
Episcopal |
2633 |
1674 |
|
1678 |
8 |
Country |
1928 |
1675 |
|
1677 |
8 |
Shepherd |
1381 |
1675 |
|
1678 |
8 |
Seaman |
2371 |
1675 |
|
1677 |
6 |
Author recd. £2 2s.
|
Royal |
-- |
1675 |
|
1678 |
10 |
Crawford |
1497 |
1676 |
|
1677 |
8 |
Lord |
1927 |
1678 |
only |
|
8 |
Peter |
2102 |
1678 |
only |
|
8 |
Yea & Nay |
1947A |
1678 |
|
1680 |
8 |
Author recd. £6 4s.
|
Readman |
2242 |
1680 |
only |
|
8 |
Supplied from Cambridge, 1684, &c.mmat; £10 |
Kirby |
1856 |
1681 |
|
1682 |
8 |
1,797 unsold copies |
Johnson |
1851 |
1683 |
only[7]
|
|
8 |
Hill |
1822A |
1684 |
only |
|
8 |
Salmon |
2314 |
1684 |
only |
|
8 |
In Table I, I have added, for each three-year period, a column for the rate per 1,000 at
which the almanacks were sold by the Treasurer, and I have marked with asterisks those
quantities printed, under a series of agreements, by the Printer to the University of
Cambridge. (I have also done this in Table IV.) It will be noticed that most of the almanacks
fall into one or other of two main categories: 'blanks' and 'sorts'; the former were half a
sheet (eight pages) longer than the latter and had the first two sheets rubricated, as
compared with the first only; they also gave a whole opening, rather than a single page, to
each month. The resulting blank spaces were used for private entries and provided the name for
this category;[8] it is possible that
variety in 'sorts' developed while there was still only one 'blank', but it can be seen in
Table IV that new almanacks tried out during the reign of Charles II were almost all
'blanks'.
In Table I, I have also given a column for the amounts (taken from the Journal) paid
annually to authors, at the beginning and at the end of the period: a few copies of each
almanack were also bound up for presentation to authors, who usually received, in addition, a
number of stitched 'offprints'. The normal rate for authors of 'sorts' was £2 throughout
the century; as early as 1631 Braithwaite[9] was grumbling at the payment, but sixty years later Mr (?William) Leybourn was
content to compile half a dozen or more at forty shillings a piece. For others, however, the
rate varied—perhaps with the success of the product the previous year; the 1658
arrangement with William Lilly, for instance, was that he should receive £60 if the
sales of his almanack reached 20,000. John Tipper, writing to Humphrey Wanley in November
1703,[10] told him that the Company
never paid the author for the first year of a new almanack (though he had been given 100
copies as a present) but that 'if it comes to be printed another year, then they will give me
proportionate to what they give others'.
The first of the questions to which answers cannot be given in the Tables concerns
surreptitious printing, and only the vaguest answer is possible. In the Journal there are
scores of references to the buying in of counterfeit almanacks, to the payment of informers
and to legal action against pirates. It is obvious that, when 20,000 copies of a book are
being distributed within a few weeks, it cannot have been difficult for a pirate, with the
connivance of a wholesaler, to feed another 5,000 to the market; since, as I shall show, there
was also good profit to be earned by almanack publishing, both opportunity for and temptation
to piracy existed; but the extent cannot even be guessed at. The most flagrant case I have
found was the printing of almanacks at York in the early part of the period; this was the
chief subject discussed, as a result of journeys to the north, at the last meeting of the
Court before the Fire; it was the only subject minuted after the first—but
informal—post-Fire meeting. In the end the two York stationers, Francis Mawburn (who
admitted to distributing 4,000 almanacks, with twenty different titles,[11] and some sheet almanacks) and
Richard Lambert paid the English Stock respectively £65 and £24, early in 1667.
The heaviness of the fines reflects either the enormous quantities unlawfully produced or the
Company's determination to give a sharp lesson to
stationers in the city
which had recently received official permission to have a press, or both.
In addition to the surreptitious printing of the Company's copies, there was the legitimate
production of other almanacks—in Dublin; in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow; in Oxford
and Cambridge; and even in London, where Raven's and a Welsh almanack were printed under
licence. Moreover, the Seymour family laid claim to certain almanacks,[12] as part (I suppose) of the School
Book Patent; and there was a trickle of near-almanack publishing,[13] which hoped to cash in on the demand without quite
infringing the Company's monopoly.
Unfortunately, the vouchers from which the Journal was posted have been destroyed and there
are seldom sufficient details, against the payments to printers, to tell what work was being
paid for. The most one is told—and this very seldom—is that, in 1668 for instance,
Milbourn was paid at the rate of 3s. 4d. each
for twenty reams of Booker and forty-five of Trigge, and that Bruges was paid £9 13s. 4d. for twenty-nine reams of Saunders; or that
in 1673 Lilliecrap received £7 10s. for twenty reams of Dade and,
two years later, Bruges £12 for thirty-two reams of Andrews.[14] These are all post-Fire prices and the rates per ream,
which work out at 3s. 4d., 6s. 8d. and 7s. 6d., are obviously inadequate figures upon which to base any general estimate of cost.
Luckily Dr Thomas Yate, Principal of Brazenose College, Oxford, and Bishop Fell's efficient
lieutenant,[15] has left some
estimates he made about 1671 for printing at Oxford a three-sheet book almanack in octavo. He
took paper at 4s. a ream (allowing 10% for wastage), composing and
printing at 2s. 6d. a ream and rolling-press
work at 4d. per 1,000. If we accept Yate's figure for paper (which is
occasionally confirmed in the Journal), drop the charge for the rolling-press (since the crude
illustrations in the London almanacks must have been printed with the text) and bear in mind
the facts that the Company rubricated two of the three sheets and often employed more than one
printer for the same almanack, the Journal figures make more, if not
complete, sense, and we can compile the following tentative estimate for 10,000 copies of a
'blank'
[16] almanack at post-Fire
rates:
|
£ |
s.
|
d.
|
66 reams of paper &c.mmat; 4s.
|
13 |
4 |
0 |
composing and printing |
&c.mmat; 3s. 4d. for 2 rubricated
sheets |
7 |
6 |
8 |
&c.mmat; 2s. 6d. for remaining
sheet |
2 |
15 |
0 |
copy money, say |
7 |
10 |
0 |
|
-------- |
total |
30 |
15 |
8 |
wholesale price &c.mmat; £8 per 1,000 |
80 |
0 |
0 |
I have worked out that, over the ten-year period 1673/4—1682/3, the total expenditure
by the English Stock on paper, printing and authorship was 38.2% of the total value, at
wholesale rates, of all books and almanacks delivered to the Treasurer; 38.2% of £80 is
£30 11s. 2½d. My figure for the
printing of 10,000 'blanks' could be varied considerably by altering the sum paid to the
author or the ratio of that sum to the number printed; and it is only put forward
tentatively.[17] I am inclined to
think that I have underestimated the rates for printing, which would mean that the profit on
books, which took months to accumulate, was (quite understandably) greater than that on
almanacks which was earned in a few weeks—assuming that the length of credit on each
kind of business was the same. The possibility that I have overestimated the profit on
almanacks is, to some extent, supported by Richard Head who, in The English
Rogue,[18] estimates that the
Company cleared, in the early 1660s, over £1,000 a year from the sale of almanacks. 'But
a knavish printer,' he goes on, 'lately outwitted them, for he printed a great number of
almanacks, and though he printed but two sorts, yet they served for all the other sorts [an
ingenious
method of dealing with the 'sorts', and not so far from the
Company's], only altering the title page, at the beginning, and the last sheet which we call
the prog, or prognostication. These almanacks he affording cheaper than ordinary, as indeed
well he might [a telling phrase], he sold off a good number of them, which was to his gain and
their great hindrance, but he is lately discovered, and how they will deal with him I know
not.' For once we know more than Richard Head; but his account of the York piracy suggests
that the profit of the English Stock (out of which, of course, came handsome dividends to the
partners) was greater than private booksellers normally made and that there was some
foundation for the usual complaint that monopolies led to high prices. If, however, my
calculations are right, the annual profit on almanacks was much nearer £1,500 than
£1,000, and we know that it remained, until well into the second half of the nineteenth
century, what Christopher Barker had called it in 1582 (when it was still going into the
pockets of Watkins and Roberts) 'a pretty commoditie toward an honest mans lyving'.
The last questions to which I would like to find complete answers concern the rates at which
country booksellers normally bought from the London wholesalers and the prices which members
of the public paid. The evidence for transactions of this kind is extremely difficult to find,
but some light is thrown on trade prices by a dispute between a Chester bookseller, Richard
Thropp, and his London correspondent, Edward Dod; this led to a lawsuit in 1653.[19] From the evidence (and assuming
that the English Stock rates were the same ten years before as they were in 1663) the
following comparative figures can be given:
|
'sorts' |
'blanks' |
Gallen |
Lilly |
|
s.
|
s.
|
s.
|
s.
|
rate per 100 to wholesalers |
10 |
12 |
14 |
37 |
rate per 100 to retailers |
10/8d.
|
13 |
17 |
46 |
It also appears that some almanacks were supplied in small quantities, bound in sheep
and clasped: Gallen &c.mmat; six for 2
s. 9
d., Booker (a 'blank') &c.mmat; four for 2
s. 2
d. and Goldsmith (8
s. per 100 to wholesalers) at
six for 1
s. 10
d. The binding rates for Gallen
and Booker work out, respectively, at 3½
d. and 5
d. a copy; unfortunately, the list of binding prices, agreed in 1669,
makes no mention either of almanacks or of clasping.
Competition for the country market must have been severe in the standard
lines—'blanks' and 'sorts'—for the wholesaler to have been
satisfied with such a small margin. The binding costs were high for single almanacks; but it
is believed that many private customers used to have a dozen or more bound up together. The
proportion of almanacks which survive in these bound sets is naturally large and may give a
false picture of the numbers treated in this way; but many people must have bought them
primarily as reference books or as 'desk' books, and only Rider, Gallen and Goldsmith were
designed for carrying about, flat or rolled—the ancestors of our pocket diaries.
The alternatives in the method and cost of binding, as always in the seventeenth century,
make it almost impossible to arrive at what we know as the published prices. Before the Fire,
Anthony Wood normally bought 'sorts' at 3d. and 'blanks' at 4d. each and for Wharton (1658) he paid 6d.; these
were probably interleaved and stitched; in December 1667 he paid 7½d. for Gadbury. Another Oxford customer, Dr Stringer, bought an almanack in 1651 for
2d. from Henry Cripps,[20] who, a year later, sold another almanack for 6d.! The
post-Fire prices would be at least 25% higher; but this does not get us very far. If any
reader of this article can direct me to booksellers' advertisements or private accounts which
will throw any light on the mark-up, with or without the addition of binding, between
wholesale and retail prices during the seventeenth century, I shall be grateful.
'Of necessity,' writes Mr Bosanquet at the beginning of the article to which I have already
referred, 'an old Almanack, merely as an Almanack, must be a very dull book;' and he gives
some splendid reasons in support of this statement. But he devotes the rest of the article to
showing what interest and information lie hidden in almanacks. Moreover, he speculates about
the numbers of copies printed. 'If the average edition,' he says, 'only consisted of from
1,500 to 2,000 copies, we have a total of from three to four millions for the century, and
this must be well under the mark. Figures such as these, even though they do not pretend to be
correct, show that no book in the English language had such a large circulation as the annual
Almanack.'
This is as true as it is important, both for the effect of these little books on a
population which was quite small and still far from literate, and for the sheer volume of
business with which the book trade was able to deal in the few weeks before Christmas. But the
really remarkable point is that Mr Bosanquet's estimate of quantity is true not for the whole
century but for the ten years from November 1663. We cannot however multiply his estimate by
ten and arrive thereby at a new figure for the century; although the almanack business was a
profitable
one when the Company took it over, it is most unlikely that the
numbers printed approached those of 1664 until the effects both of the Civil War stimulus to
printing and of the Restoration conditions for peaceful distribution could be felt together.
1665 was, in fact, a minor peak of a year, which was not equalled until 1683; it would be
unwise to continue the line of the graph, which is astonishingly level during the period for
which we have figures, backwards into the first half of the century, at anything like the same
height; but further guessing would be valueless.
In conclusion, I should like to mention again a factor which affected both the total number
of almanacks in circulation and the decisions which the Stock-keepers made about the numbers
to print for their stock each year; this factor is the quantity of almanacks surreptitiously
printed. The figures in the 'unsold' columns for 1665 and 1666 in Table I, compared with those
for the previous year, show clearly how well the size of the market was normally estimated[21] and how vulnerable the Company was
to competition; Mawburn and Lambert were not discovering a wholly new public from York but, to
an uncomfortable extent, biting into the existing market. The value of unsold almanacks tended
to increase as the century grew older; in 1684 it was nearly £250 and by 1696 it was
over £300. It therefore seems as if the evenness of the Company's production in a
generally expanding market might be explained by the ever-present fear—and fact—of
infringement. The attack might come at any point: in 1666 and 1667 it seems to have been aimed
at Pond and Dove; and by the time the culprits have been discovered the damage has been done;
piracy may only delay the sale of a book; it destroys the sale of an annual. In spite of its
caution, the English Stock found itself landed each year with a few more reams of unsold[22] almanacks; but, aided by its
caution, the Company clung to most of the profits to be made in this market under the changing
conditions of the eighteenth century, and it was not until 1775 that Thomas Carnan succeeded
in breaking the almanack monopoly.
|
|
Paid for Copy |
Wholesale price per 1,000 |
1664 |
1665 |
1666 |
Post-Fire price per 1,000 |
1667 |
1668 |
1669 |
1670-1684 |
1685 |
1686 |
1687 |
Wholesale price per 1,000 |
Paid for Copy |
Name of Almanack |
1664 ref. in Wing A |
£ |
£ |
first impression |
second impression |
number unsold |
first impression |
second impression |
number unsold |
number printed |
number unsold |
£ |
number printed |
number unsold |
number printed |
number unsold |
number printed |
number unsold |
See Table IV |
first impression |
second impression |
first impression |
second impression |
first impression |
second impression |
£ |
£ |
1687 ref. in Wing A |
Name of Almanack |
Rider 12° |
2248A |
10 |
7 |
10,000 |
9,000 |
|
15,000 |
7,500 |
|
18,000} |
2,000 |
10 |
20,000 |
|
22,500 |
|
25,950 |
350 |
|
30,000 |
7,000 |
30,000 |
3,000 |
30,000 |
5,000 |
10 |
10 |
-- |
Rider 12° |
Gallen 12° |
-- |
2 |
7 |
10,000 |
|
|
12,000 |
|
|
12,000} |
|
10 |
8,000 |
|
8,000 |
|
10,000 |
|
|
10,000 |
|
10,000 |
|
10,000 |
|
10 |
2 |
-- |
Gallen 12° |
Goldsmith 24° |
-- |
5 |
4 |
16,000 |
|
300 |
10,000 |
|
200 |
10,000 |
2,800 |
5 |
12,000 |
|
13,000 |
|
15,000 |
200 |
|
20,000 |
4,000 |
20,000 |
3,000 |
20,000 |
2,000 |
5 |
-- |
1796 |
Goldsmith 24° |
Lilly 8° |
1896 |
48 |
18.5 |
8,000 |
|
275 |
7,965 |
|
|
12,000 |
850 |
18.5 |
14,500 |
|
10,974 |
|
9,475 |
75 |
|
5,150 |
|
3,000 |
|
3,500 |
|
18.5 |
20 |
1438 |
Lilly 8° |
Wharton 8° |
2655 |
2 |
18.5 |
8,000 |
|
1,300 |
7,000 |
|
1,080 |
7,000 |
2,000 |
-- |
Smith 24° |
-- |
-- |
4 |
|
|
|
3,000 |
|
400 |
5,000 |
3,300 |
-- |
Gadbury 8° |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
18 |
|
|
6,000 |
2,538 |
3,000 |
50 |
last 1675 |
|
|
|
|
4,000 |
|
18 |
-- |
1942 |
Gadbury's Plot |
'Blanks' 8° |
|
|
|
|
|
675 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
108 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Blanks' 8° |
Wing (Vincent) |
2813 |
7 |
6 |
25,000 |
16,500 |
|
30,000 |
15,000 |
|
43,000 |
34 |
8 |
40,000 |
|
50,000 |
|
52,500 |
750 |
not 1673-9 |
6,000[*]
|
|
9,000[*]
|
|
8,300[*]
|
|
8 |
-- |
2778 |
Wing (John) |
Poor Robin |
2183 |
2 |
6 |
18,000 |
8,000 |
|
25,000 |
4,000 |
75 |
20,000 |
100 |
8 |
20,000 |
|
22,500 |
|
25,000 |
|
|
18,000 |
|
18,000 |
|
18,000 |
1,500 |
8 |
6 |
2206 |
Poor Robin |
Saunders |
2334 |
10 |
6 |
15,000 |
|
|
20,000 |
|
300 |
15,000 |
700 |
8 |
14,000 |
560 |
14,500 |
450 |
14,000 |
50 |
|
20,000 |
|
20,000 |
|
18,000 |
|
8 |
4 |
2357 |
Saunders |
Andrews |
-- |
4 |
6 |
10,000 |
2,500 |
|
12,500 |
|
|
10,000 |
33 |
8 |
10,000 |
|
14,500 |
|
15,000 |
175 |
|
20,000 |
5,000 |
20,000 |
5,000 |
20,000 |
|
8 |
12 |
1283 |
Andrews |
Gadbury |
1743 |
6 |
6 |
7,000 |
|
|
7,000 |
|
125 |
6,925 |
150 |
8 |
12,000 |
525 |
|
|
|
|
first 1677 |
20,000 |
5,000 |
20,000 |
3,000 |
20,000 |
3,000 |
8 |
40 |
1766 |
Gadbury |
Tanner |
2501 |
-- |
6 |
12,000 |
|
|
12,000 |
|
100 |
12,000 |
100 |
8 |
12,500 |
|
14,500 |
|
15,000 |
2,300 |
|
14,000 |
|
12,000 |
|
12,000 |
|
8 |
10 |
2524 |
Tanner |
Pond |
2145 |
-- |
6 |
24,800[*]
|
|
2,100 |
24,900[*]
|
|
4,075 |
22,850[*]
|
5,000 |
8 |
19,750[*]} |
14,725 |
14,000[*]
|
400 |
|
|
|
8,000[*]
|
|
6,000[*]
|
|
7,150[*]
|
|
8 |
-- |
2167 |
Pond |
Dove |
1610 |
-- |
6 |
24,850[*]
|
|
2,900 |
24,900[*]
|
|
3,900 |
22,825[*]
|
6,000 |
8 |
22,500[*]} |
|
14,250[*]
|
|
|
|
|
11,000[*]
|
|
9,000[*]
|
|
7,000[*]
|
|
8 |
-- |
1632 |
Dove |
Booker |
1350 |
12 |
6 |
10,000 |
5,000 |
|
15,000 |
|
|
15,000 |
33 |
8 |
7,500 |
|
10,000 |
|
11,900 |
1,875 |
last 1684 |
Nunns |
1993 |
-- |
6.6 |
4,000 |
|
700 |
5,000 |
|
200 |
5,000 |
1,000 |
-- |
Conyers |
-- |
-- |
6.6 |
4,000 |
|
250 |
|
|
|
|
|
-- |
Swan |
2472 |
-- |
5.6 |
7,900[*]
|
|
500 |
8,000[*]
|
|
150 |
7,950[*]
|
300 |
7.6 |
7,850[*]
|
1,150 |
4,700[*]
|
|
|
|
last 1684 |
Heatly |
-- |
-- |
5.6 |
|
|
|
5,000 |
|
250 |
|
|
-- |
Blagrave |
-- |
-- |
5.6 |
|
|
|
5,000 |
|
1,100 |
|
|
-- |
Westly |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7.6 |
|
|
|
|
5,000 |
1,900 |
only 1669 |
Hooker |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
7.5 |
|
|
4,450[*]
|
2,325 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1671 |
6,000 |
|
6,000 |
|
6,000 |
|
8 |
3 |
1434 |
Coelson |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1672 |
20,000 |
|
20,000 |
|
18,000 |
|
8 |
8 |
1464 |
Coley |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1677 |
5,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
5 |
-- |
Protestant |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1678 |
15,000 |
5,000 |
20,000 |
3,000 |
20,000 |
|
8 |
10 |
2047 |
Partridge |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1683 |
3,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
3 |
-- |
Streete |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1683 |
3,000 |
|
3,000 |
|
3,000 |
|
8 |
-- |
-- |
Woodward |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
5,000 |
|
4,000 |
|
3,000 |
1,500 |
8 |
-- |
1405 |
Chapman |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
4,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
-- |
-- |
Crabtree |
'Sorts' 8° |
|
|
|
|
|
600 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Sorts' 8° |
Dade |
1554 |
2 |
5 |
10,000 |
4,000 |
|
12,000 |
4,000 |
900 |
10,000 |
300 |
6 |
11,000 |
1,175 |
8,000 |
|
8,000 |
|
|
6,000 |
|
6,000 |
|
6,000 |
|
6 |
2 |
1530 |
Dade |
Woodhouse |
2843 |
2 |
5 |
10,000 |
4,000 |
|
12,000 |
4,000 |
1,450 |
10,000 |
500 |
6 |
11,000 |
1,550 |
8,000 |
|
10,000 |
|
|
10,000 |
|
10,000 |
|
10,000 |
|
6 |
-- |
2866 |
Woodhouse |
White |
2749 |
2 |
5 |
10,000 |
4,000 |
|
12,000 |
3,950 |
800 |
10,000 |
400 |
6 |
8,000 |
25 |
7,900 |
|
9,900 |
|
|
8,000 |
|
8,000 |
|
8,000 |
|
6 |
5.75 |
2726 |
White |
Fly |
1666 |
2 |
5 |
15,000 |
7,000 |
|
21,000 |
3,975 |
1,950 |
19,000 |
250 |
6 |
15,000 |
|
15,000 |
|
18,000 |
|
|
6,000} |
|
6,000} |
|
6,000} |
|
6 |
2 |
1689 |
Fly |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16,000[*]} |
|
16,000[*]} |
|
16,400[*]
|
Rose |
2271 |
2 |
5 |
10,000 |
|
|
10,000 |
3,000 |
700 |
10,000 |
250 |
6 |
7,950 |
|
10,000 |
|
10,000 |
|
|
12,000 |
|
12,000 |
|
12,000 |
|
6 |
-- |
2294 |
Rose |
Trigge |
2546 |
2 |
5 |
7,000 |
|
|
7,000 |
|
100 |
7,000 |
|
6 |
14,000 |
|
15,000 |
50 |
15,000 |
|
|
20,000 |
|
20,000 |
|
20,000 |
|
6 |
- |
2569 |
Trigge |
Perkins |
2077 |
2 |
5 |
10,000 |
|
|
12,000 |
|
|
10,000 |
1,400 |
6 |
8,000 |
100 |
8,000 |
|
9,950 |
|
|
12,000 |
|
12,000 |
|
12,000 |
|
6 |
2 |
2091 |
Perkins |
Swallow |
2428 |
-- |
5 |
24,850[*]
|
|
|
24,900[*]
|
|
|
24,900[*]
|
3,500 |
6 |
24,850 |
7,325 |
18,500[*]
|
50 |
|
|
|
18,000[*]
|
|
16,000[*]
|
|
16,350[*]
|
|
6 |
-- |
2451 |
Swallow |
Neve |
1973 |
2 |
5 |
8,000 |
|
|
10,000 |
|
200 |
10,000 |
2,900 |
6 |
7,000 |
50 |
7,000 |
375 |
6,000 |
850 |
last 1672 |
Vaux |
2622 |
2 |
5 |
6,000 |
|
|
6,000 |
|
200 |
5,950 |
1,200 |
-- |
Jinner |
1847 |
-- |
4.6 |
8,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-- |
Prince |
-- |
-- |
4.6 |
4,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-- |
Clarke |
-- |
-- |
-- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
6 |
|
|
4,400[*]
|
100 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1680 |
3,000 |
|
|
|
3,000 |
|
6 |
1.5 |
1721 |
Fowle |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
first 1683 |
6,000[*]
|
|
9,000[*]
|
|
8,200[*]
|
|
6 |
-- |
1508 |
Culpeper |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3,000 |
|
6 |
-- |
1584/5 |
Davis |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3,000 |
|
6 |
2 |
2597 |
Turner |
Total |
-- |
-- |
-- |
337,400 |
60,000 |
9,600 |
376,165 |
45,425 |
18,255 |
361,400 |
35,100 |
-- |
327,400 |
27,185 |
325,674 |
6,396 |
288,675 |
8,575 |
|
360,150 |
26,000 |
345,000 |
17,000 |
351,900 |
13,000 |
-- |
-- |
-- |
Total |
'Sheet' |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
'Sheet' |
London |
-- |
-- |
2.5 |
11,500 |
2,000 |
|
14,750 |
} |
150 |
12,500} |
750 |
3 |
14,450 |
|
15,500} |
475 |
14,000 |
|
|
25,000 |
23,000 |
30,000 |
25,000 |
30,000 |
33,750 |
3 |
-- |
|
London |
Cambridge |
-- |
-- |
2.5 |
14,900[*]
|
|
|
14,900[*]
|
} |
150 |
14,950[*]
|
750 |
3 |
10,500[*]
|
|
15,500[*]
|
475 |
|
|
|
34,000[*]
|
|
35,500[*]
|
|
40,000[*]
|
|
3 |
-- |
|
Cambridge |
[_]
Notes: Rider and Gallen contained 1 sheet and 2 half sheets. Goldsmith and Smith
contained 2 half sheets. Lilly and Wharton contained 6 sheets before the Fire. Lilly and
Gadbury (1668-1675) and Gadbury's Plot contained 5 sheets.
[_]
'Blanks' contained 3 and 'Sorts' 2½ sheets. The London 'Sheet' Almanacks were
compiled by Gadbury and Wing. The absence of a figure in the "Copy" column means not that no
money was paid to the author but that I have been able to discover no evidence of
payment.
[_]
For 1685-7 there are no details of unsold almanacks and, in the valuations for these
years, books and almanacks are lumped together.
[_]
All 30 almanacks for 1687 were advertised in the Term Catalogue for Michaelmas
1686.
Notes