 | |  |
Notes on the Ballad Market in the Second Half of
the
Seventeenth Century
by
Cyprian
Blagden
To turn the pages of Wing and to let one's eyes wander up and down its double columns sets in motion trains of thought that are related to one's own particular interests. Here, among the 90,000 titles, are buried the publications of the bookseller one happens to be working on; here, if one can only pick them up in the right order, are some missing pieces in the jig-saw of book-trade practice.
I found, during a recent use of Wing, that my eyes were repeatedly caught by the italics of certain imprints—of the group of booksellers, for instance, with shares in the big Law books; and then I found that P. Brooksby, J. Deacon, J. Blare and J. Back were names that appeared over and over again as issuers of broadsides, and then that there was an even more formidable group of ballad proprietors, F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray and T. Passinger. When I looked more closely I discovered that these two groups, with one or two individuals like Grove and Gilbertson, dominated the ballad trade in the latter half of the seventeenth century and, moreover, that the second group (with which this article is mainly concerned) had a shifting pattern in which now one, now two or three or four or all six of the names properly—and predictably—played their parts.
It was rather like working out one of those competitions which the London New Statesman used to publish twenty years ago; but instead of the red-headed non-smoker whose wife bid "three hearts" against her uncle the admiral, I had the names of booksellers, which might be those of fathers or sons or wives, and odd pieces of information like the date of a will; and instead of having to find the order in which eight people sat at two bridge tables, I set myself to discover the sequence of imprints—perhaps a dozen and a half variations—made from ten surnames, and to find therefrom a means of dating rather more closely the (almost always) undated ballads printed for the members of the group.
The personalities are Francis Coles and his wife Mary, Thomas Vere, John Wright, his wife Mary and their son John, William Gilbertson, John Clarke, Thomas Passinger and his nephew Thomas, William Thackeray, John Millet and his wife Elizabeth, Alexander Milbourn and William Onley. The results of the competition I give straight away, and I suggest that any broadside with one of the following imprints must have been printed (but not of course first printed) during the years shewn in my list against the imprint.
- A. Printed for F. Coles, J. Wright, T. Vere and W. Gilbertson 1655-1658
- B. " " F. Coles, M. Wright, T. Vere and W. Gilbertson 1658
- C. " " F. Coles, T. Vere and W. Gilbertson 1658-1664
- D. " " F. Coles, T. Vere, W. Gilbertson and J. Wright 1663-1665
- E. " " F. Coles, T. Vere and J. Wright 1663-1674
- F. " " F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright and J. Clarke 1674-1679
- G. " " F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray and T. Passinger 1678-1680
- H. " " M. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray and T. Passinger 1680-1682
- J. " " T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray and T. Passinger 1680-1682
- K. " " J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray and T. Passinger 1681-1684
- L. " " J. Clarke, W. Thackeray and T. Passinger 1684-1686
- M. " " W. Thackeray and T. Passinger 1686-1688
- N. " " W. Thackeray 1688-1689
- O. " " W. Thackeray, J. Millet and A. Milbourn 1689-1692
- P. " " W. Thackeray, E. Millet and A. Milbourn 1692
Before giving my reasons for these assertions I want to make a number of points and to rehearse a piece of earlier history.
- (1) I am not concerned either with the authorship of a ballad
or with the dating of it by reference to its content. Much research
has been put into this aspect of ballad literature but it can
usually tell us only the date of first publication. That a
ballad was composed in the reign of James I will not help us when
we come to a printing of it that obviously belongs to the reign of
his elder grandson. The vast majority of the ballads on which
appear the imprints I have listed were ballads with a popular but
largely non-topical appeal—tales of romance and Robin Hood rather
than
163celebrations of victory and satires on politicians. Their interest lies, therefore, as much in their continued popularity as in their origins.
- (2) This section of the ballad market was profitable and copyrights were jealously guarded. There are many entries in the earlier Registers of the Stationers' Company to action taken against the infringers of such copyrights; the existence of the partnership may help to account for the surprisingly small amount of evidence of infringement after the Restoration.
- (3) The owners of ballad copyrights were not always booksellers of the meaner sort, as is sometimes suggested; they left tidy sums to their widows and children; they played their parts in the affairs of the Company, held shares in the English Stock and became Wardens; Vere even became Master.
- (4) I have found no evidence to support the statement, occasionally made, that the Stationers' Company had a Ballad Stock just as it had an English or a Latin Stock. Arber is right, I think, when he refers to the voluntary formation of a common stock of ballads by certain members of the Company, and it is with this stock that I am concerned. The original confusion may have arisen from a list in the Bagford Papers of "ye names of ye pattentes for ye printing of Balletes", a list constructed, I suspect, from imprints. I want, however, to make it clear that each member of the group was at the same time "publishing" on his own account—both books and ballads, both alone and jointly with other book-sellers, sometimes with other members of the ballad group.
- (5) It is essential for the proving of my theory that different printings of the same ballad should be found, one printing bearing one of the imprints listed above and another printing bearing another from the list. I have therefore taken as my key the immense entry in the Registers made in the names of Coles, Vere, Wright, and Clarke on 1 March 1675. From this list of 196 titles, 90 per cent of which are ballads, there can be found examples bearing all the imprints except two, the first and the last.[1] Some of the old titles may drop out; new ones are certainly added; but there is a hard core of common stock, and it is difficult to understand why a ballad bearing, for instance, imprints A and G should have been missed from the 1675 entry.
- (6) A few surviving copies of ballads, bearing imprints with
which I am concerned, have dates added in manuscript. The
Dutchess of Ports-mouths Farewel (B. M. Luttrell II, f168) has
"20 feb 1685/4" in the handwriting of Narcissus Luttrell and
imprint L (my dates 1684 to 1686). Anthony Wood wrote "1660" and
"Sept 1660" and "1661" on three ballads
164(Bodley, Wood 402, ff 174, 176, and 180) bearing imprint C (my dates 1658 to 1664). All I can say of this possible aid to dating (as of the very occasional printed date) is that I have found nothing to alter the conclusions I have reached. I would, however, like to shew its very real danger by reference to a ballad called Loves Carouse which is dated "1674" in manuscript (Luttrell II, f133); this ballad has the imprint of Francis Grove who had been dead since 1663.
- (7) Just as I have deliberately avoided using the contents of a ballad as a guide to the dating of a particular printing of it, so I have made no attempt to use the evidence which lies in a study of the types and cuts employed in the printing of the ballads. What I hope is that someone with expert knowledge of this subject will think it worth while to work within the dating framework I have constructed and either prove my dating wrong or dispose of some of the overlaps. Even if this cannot be done, it would be interesting to know something more of the printers who were engaged in the printing of the ballads.
- (8) That a ballad was a piece of paper printed on one side only,[2] like the announcement of a Jumble Sale, does not mean that it rapidly found its way into (what I am sure was not thought necessary in the seventeenth century) the waste-paper-basket. Reading matter was too scarce and valuable; besides, there was not then the sharp distinction we make between bound books which we keep and newspapers and magazines which are almost immediately expendable. Ballads, of the popular literature kind, may be "ephemeral" now, but I doubt if they were so regarded in the seventeenth century by the purchasers for whom they were printed. "O sister," says Cokes to Mistress Overdo in Bartholomew Fair, "doe you remember the ballads over the Nursery-chimney at home o' my owne pasting up?" Fortunately for us, there were—among those who normally bought books rather than ballads—collectors like Selden and Pepys, Bagford and Anthony Wood, who rescued copies while they were still obtainable; and there were educated men who enjoyed reading them. According to Hearne (8 June 1711), the Earl of Dorset, "a man of admirable sense and understanding," had a fine collection of ballads which he used to read with delight for their "simplicity and nakedness of style", and the Dean of Christ Church was ready to spend a good sum for a similar accumulation.
- (9) I must record the immense amount of help I have received,
in my chasing of ballads, to Hyder E. Rollins' An Analytical
Index to the Ballad-Entries
1651557-1709 ("Studies in Phiology," XXI (Jan. 1924). This is a marvellous tool and is frequently referred to here as 'Rollins'. In addition, the publications of the Ballad Society and Rollins' edition of the Pepys Ballads, though they do not cut out the necessity of handling real ballads, do reduce the number of hours so spent.
Though I have taken 1655 as the earliest date for a joint imprint, I must go back to 1618 for what I think is the beginning of the story. The idea of Patents and Monopolies was in the air, and in October of that year Thomas Symcocke prayed the King to grant him a Patent for the sole printing of everything that was printed on one side only. This was granted jointly to him (though he had no connection with the printing trade) and to Roger Wood (a real printer) for 31 years on payment of £10 a year. The Stationers' Company immediately protested[3] but it was not until 24 August 1622 that James was moved to instruct the Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench to enquire fully into Symcocke's Patent. It happened that Thomas Pavier, one of those chiefly interested in the ballad trade, had been elected Renter Warden in July 1622; it looks as if he was enabled, by his official position, to compel the Company to make a stronger appeal to the King.[4]
It is difficult to discover what followed during the next two years; the only certainty is that ballads still exist with the imprint "Printed by the Assigns of Thomas Symcocke". But on 14 December 1624, 128 ballads, mostly old ones, were entered in the Registers as the joint property of six booksellers—Thomas Pavier, John Wright, his brothers Cuthbert and Edward, John Grismond, and Henry Gosson. The family ties of the group were strengthened by the marriages of Cuthbert Wright, Grismond, and Gosson to daughters of Pavier. On 19 June 1625 there was a further entry of ten ballads. This entry comes not in its chronological place but at the very end of the pages for the year 1624/5 and is the first of a series of annual entries by the partners at about this time. The principle of private ownership in ballad stock had been firmly established so far as the Company was concerned.
But Symcocke was not yet finished; in 1628 his Patent was renewed.
Meanwhile Pavier had died (early in 1626) and Francis Coles had taken his place in the partnership.[5] By the end of 1638 Cuthbert Wright and Grismond were dead;[6] Gosson disappeared about 1640 and John Wright died early in 1646, leaving everything to his brother Edward, the last of the original gang. When Edward made his will in 1651, having probably already retired to his East Haddon home, he appointed as executors Coles and his cousin John Wright, hitherto known as "junior"; and on 4 and 5 April 1655, about a year before he died, he assigned a large number of Copies to William Gilbertson. Here, then, are three out of the four names in my first imprint; the fourth, Thomas Vere, only appeared as a partner on 13 March 1656 (in an entry in the Registers), but he always took precedence of Gilbertson.[7] Copyrights which had once been owned jointly by six booksellers were now owned jointly and equally by four others.
How exactly this rearrangement took place is perhaps of little importance; but I should like to be able to answer the question, "What were the imprints of those 128 ballads which were entered jointly in 1624 and printed in the succeeding 30 years?" Arguing from later practice I would have expected them to carry the names of all the partners who were active at the time of printing. But I have not come across a single example of such an imprint, and it is extremely unlikely that they have all disappeared. On those ballads which might have been printed during this dark age, overshadowed by the threat or the reality of the Civil War, the only imprints I have come across are "By the Assigns of Thomas Symcocke" or "For" one of the individual partners in the ballad stock. The most interesting examples are those ballads of which there are copies bearing different imprints. A pleasant new Court Song, beginning "Upon a Summer's
I can prove nothing, but the following hypotheses occurred to me when trying to answer this question about the imprints between 1624 and 1655:—
- (1) That the partners, either jointly or severally, were until 1629, Symcocke's Assigns—at least as distributors; Roger Wood may have looked after the printing. This is made slightly improbable by STC 19246 which has "By the Assignes of T. Symcocks, sold by F. Grove".
- (2) That from 1618 to 1629 Symcocke through unknown assigns and the partners (individually until 1624 and thereafter together) were issuing the same ballads in opposition to each other. But these two alternatives only take us to 1629; and how were chapmen to know where to collect supplies of Symcocke's printings?
- (3) That, after the withdrawal of Symcocke in 1629, the partners issued a ballad not with a joint imprint but with the imprint of that member of the group who had first claim to its copyright, and that the main purpose of the group was not so much manufacture (and copyright protection) as distribution.
- (4) That—as a variation of (3)—each partner received his share of a printing with only his name in the imprint.
- (5) That the Wright and Gosson imprints quoted above belong to the pre-Symcocke period (or at least to the pre-1624 period). But this leaves the post-1629 period quite empty and I can only repeat that it is extremely unlikely—even allowing for the impact of the Civil War and the Puritan attitude to the singing of ballads—that no ballads registered by the partners were issued between 1629 and 1655 or that, if they were issued, none have survived.
Further variations and extensions of these possibilities could be devised, but until more evidence comes to light the verdict must be left open. In view of the existence of seventeenth-century partnership books, identical in every way except that they bear different imprints for different partners, I favour alternative (4) combined with alternative (2).
A.) Printed for F. Coles, J. Wright, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson 1655-1658
On 13 March 1656 these four entered 28 ballads, at least ten of which had been entered at various times before. This entry, like Francis Grove's of 25 the day before, was an abnormally large one and suggests either a renewal of publishing activity (a view which a sudden outcrop of booksellers' catalogues at this date supports), or a threat of infringement, or (though not with Grove) a settling down to a new partnership arrangement. Perhaps it was a bit of each. Since John Wright was buried on 11 May 1658 (Smyth's Obituary, Camden Soc., 1849, p. 47), the end of the imprint is certain; and since very few ballads have survived with this set of names I have not put the earliest date further back than 1655, which gives the partnership nearly fifteen months before the first entry in the Registers; moreover, 1655 was the year in which Edward Wright assigned a number of copyrights to Gilbertson.[8] Martin Parker's The distressed Virgin (B.M.c.20.f.14, no. 11) has this imprint. It was entered to the partners on 1 June 1629 and in the Crawford Collection there is a version with imprint G; STC 19228 is for Coles alone. It is surprising not to find it in the 1675 entry when it was obviously part of the ballad stock.
B.) Printed for F. Coles, M. Wright, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson 1658
Mary, the widow of John Wright, was left with two youngish boys, the elder of whom (another John: how often one wishes for a little more imagination in the choosing of Christian names!) was made free of the Stationers' Company by patrimony on 5 October 1663. His mother kept on the business and may have intended to take his father's place in the ballad partnership until young John could step in. The other partners, perhaps, thought otherwise; none of them is, oddly enough, mentioned in the will. By 26 July the name of Wright has dropped out of the partnership entries in the Registers. The ranting whores resolution (Wing R 255, Rollins 2238) is one of the very few ballads with this imprint; it appears in the Roxburghe Collection, dated 1672, with imprint E.[9]
C.) Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and W. Gilbertson 1658-1664
Young John Wright was free in October 1663; Gilbertson did not die until
D.) Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, W. Gilbertson, and J. Wright 1663-1665
If this imprint turns up on a ballad, it must be dated between late 1663 and early 1665, since Gilbertson[10] died between 29 March and 15 April of the latter year and Wright was not free until the Autumn of 1663. It must be remembered, however, that copyrights in the ballad stock were treated as separate from a bookseller's normal copyrights in books and that a partnership imprint on a book is no argument for a similar ballad imprint.
E.) Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, and J. Wright 1663-1674
Though the partners, except perhaps for Pavier, seem to have survived the various outbreaks of the plague, they suffered badly in the fire of 1666. The members of the 1624 group had had shops in or around Newgate Street, except for Henry Gosson who was on London Bridge, the other main centre of the ballad trade. In 1666 the three partners were all in the Old Bailey. They were burnt out but they did not move very far. Coles went to Vine Street, on Saffron Hill near Hatton Garden, Vere to Giltspur Street, just outside Newgate, and Wright to Little Britain. Little Britain ran direct into West Smithfield; Giltspur Street indirectly through Pye Corner. It was here, in Pye Corner, that the Ballad Warehouse was finally
In spite of the disturbance of the fire a fair number of ballads with this imprint have survived. Pride's fall (Wing P3447, Rollins 2194/5) is typical. An interesting development of this period is the holding of a joint stock of small books as well as ballads. As Nathaniel Crouch was to demonstrate, the market was ready for something more solid than the single sheet. Samuel Rowlands' Doctor Merrieman, for instance, occurs as printed by E. Crowch for these three in 1671, having been printed by R. I. for Francis Grove in 1657; it also appears in 1681 with imprint G and is one of the last entries in 1675 (Wing R2081/3; since it is not a ballad there is no reference in Rollins). A similar entry is Hey for Horn Fair, of which the only edition given by Wing (H1658A) has this imprint and is dated 1674. John Clarke, therefore, who on 27 January 1673 entered some ballads which were afterwards absorbed into the partnership stock, was certainly not one of the group before 1674; whether or not he was during the year I do not know, but we must allow the possibility; just as we must allow the possibility of Gilbertson's being out and Wright in during 1663.
F.) Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, and J. Clarke 1674-1679
We now get to the most important entry of all, that of 1 March 1675 when were "Entred by mutuall consent . . . . (and by an order of a full court of assistants) to each of them the said Francis Coles, Thomas Veere, John Wright and John Clarke, severally a fourth part of all the bookes, Ballads and copies . . . . hereafter following. . . ." The 196 titles occupy five pages in the Registers, but there is no indication of the fee paid for entering.
The order in which the ballads are listed seems to conform to a rough pattern. Of the first 80, 70 were entered before to one or other of the groups of partners, four to other booksellers and six for the first time. Of the next twenty-five, fourteen were previously entered to Francis Grove, four to other booksellers and seven for the first time. Of the next fifty all but five (three to Grove and two to Jno Clarke) were then entered for the first time. Most of the rest are not ballads. It looks, therefore, as if the ballads were listed in the order in which they were acquired. Assignments were seldom recorded in the Registers and some ballads might have been first issued by the partners, or of course by others, without registration: many of the titles listed here for the first time must, almost certainly, have been originally the property of other booksellers.
In the Bagford Ballads (Hertford, 1878, p. 1117) J. W. Ebsworth says that "before 1675 began the Licensing of all Ballad Singers for five
This partnership of four certainly lasted until 1 July 1678 when they made two entries in the Registers. Some time between then and September 1680, when Coles' will was proved, Thackeray and Passinger parted company with William Whitwood and joined the partnership. Until more evidence comes to light the dates of these two imprints must be allowed to overlap. In view of the large number of surviving ballads with the imprint of six names (at least as many as those bearing the imprint of the first four only) I am tempted to associate Vere's becoming Upper Warden in July 1679 with the introduction of new blood; Whitwood had, before Easter 1680, moved from the Smithfield area to the Strand, thereby putting the seal on his break with the ballad-merchants. A most excellent song of the love of young Palmus (Wing M2883, Rollins 1804) carries this imprint as well as a later one; it was entered in the Registers under various titles.
G.) Printed for F. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger 1678-1680
I have already referred to Coles' death by September 1680. The opening date of this important partnership of six must still remain uncertain, but it cannot have been before 1678. The dying tears of a panitent sinner (Wing D2958, Rollins 658) will do as well as any other example of this imprint.
H.) Printed for M. Coles, T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger 1680-1682
M. Coles is Mary, the widow of Francis, whose name I have found on a few ballads only. The wandring prince and princess (Wing W700, Rollins 2842) is one and it is found entered under various titles. It is probable that Mary's name only appeared while her husband's estate was being wound up. It is possible that Vere sold out about the same time; there is an assignment of his to John Clarke dated 5 September 1681, though there is, as usual, no mention of ballads. I have no evidence that the name of Vere appeared on a ballad without that of Coles at this end of the partnership, but Parismus again provides the imprint on a book. Vol. I has imprint G and the date 1681;[11] vol. II has the same imprint and date, but without the name of Coles. Vere became Master of the Stationers' Company
J.) Printed for T. Vere, J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger 1680-1682
This is put in merely as a form of insurance and is on a par with imprint D.
K.) Printed for J. Wright, J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger 1681-1684
Though Vere did not die until early in 1682, he may have disposed of his holding in the ballad stock during the previous year. The end came with the death of John Wright between 1 and 20 October 1684. Tobias Bowne's The two faithful lovers has this imprint as well as imprint F and a later one (Wing B3898/3900, Rollins 2762).
L.) Printed for J. Clarke, W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger 1684-1686
John Wright was a man of property and standing; he owned farms in several counties, houses in London and stock in the Stationers' Company. The overseers of his will were Thomas Basset, Richard Chiswell, Samuel Sprint, and Thomas Passinger, and one of his executors was a Doctor of Divinity. But all his children were minors and there was no arrangement made for retaining his share in the ballad stock. The next to go was John Clarke. He made his will on 16 August 1686 when he was "very sick & weake in body", but he probably did not die till the year was nearly out. He was a widower with one minor son, Thomas; and I have the impression from his will that he did not get on well with his relatives. There is no mention of ballad copyrights but one of the witnesses was John Millet, the printer of ballads. As an example of this imprint there is A letter for a Christian family [?by John Vicars] (Wing V315, Rollins 1492), which also occurs with a later imprint.
M.) Printed for W. Thackeray, and T. Passinger 1686-1688
I have included 1686 in order to be on the safe side, but the bulk of the issuing of ballads with this imprint must have been in 1687 and the first
N.) Printed for W. Thackeray 1688-1689
For about eighteen months Thackeray, the last of the six, had the field to himself. A most godly and comfortable ballad of the glorious resurrection (Wing M2892, Rollins 972) will stand as an example of the many issued by Thackeray alone. To him we owe the most complete printed list of seventeenth-century ballads that has survived (B.M. c.40.m.10, no.2). It is a sheet measuring 15¼'' by 12'', printed on one side only and headed "These small Books, Ballads and Histories undernamed, are all Printed for and Sold by WILLIAM THACKERAY at the Angel in Duck-lane, London; where any Chapman may be furnished with them or any other Books at Reasonable Rates." There follow six columns, 3¼ of which are taken up with 301 ballads. After a gap for adding new titles are sections for Broad Sheets, Small Godly Books, Small Merry Books, Double Books, and Histories. J. W. Ebsworth, in his introduction to the Bagford Ballads (p.liii), thinks this list was issued in late March or early April 1685 on the grounds that no. 170 of the ballads, English Traveller, refers to James II's accession and that none of the ballads issued later in the year, during Monmouth's rebellion, appear. I entirely agree with the first part of his argument, so far as first publication is concerned, but I doubt whether his second carries much weight in the Ballad Warehouse. Coles & Co. were much more interested in the traditional ballad than in the topical; booksellers like Brooksby, Deacon, Dean and Bates put their names to the Monmouth ballads. I feel that if Clarke and Passinger had been partners in these ballads, as they were in 1685, their names would also have appeared in the advertisement, the normal practice when a whole block of publications is held in co-partnership. Moreover the title of English Traveller is buried, amongst old stuff, three-quarters of the way down the second column—not a good place for a recent issue. These are reasons for not dating the list 1685; my argument for dating it 1689 will come better under the discussion of the next imprint.
Of the 301 ballads listed I will only say that the first twenty-one are all to do with Robin Hood, far and away the most popular ballad figure, and that a very high proportion of them are found in the Register entries, many of them more than once. It must have been a trade list compiled for use of Hawkers and Chapmen, and it is interesting to speculate how they carried a sheet of this size so that it was usable.
O.) Printed for W. Thackeray, J. Millet, and A. Milbourn 1689-1692
The list of booksellers begins to expand again. In the Pepys Library, pages 439-443 of MS 2509 are a copy, which Pepys must have had made to go with his ballad collection, of "The present Adjustment & Settlement of the Stock of ye Ancient Ballad Warehouse; with the Propriety & Right of Printng the same, 1689."[13] Ebsworth (p.lviii) refers to it in passing and calls it an Indenture of the Stationers' Company; it certainly reads as though it had been drawn up by an organization in order to prevent squabbling among its members. The preamble is so interesting that I quote it in full with the kind permission of the Master and Fellows of Magdalene College, Cambridge:—
There follows a large number of clauses governing various aspects of the partnership: that the stock and profits shall be equally divided; that
An excellent ballad, intituled, The constancy of Susanna (Wing E3783, Rollins 379), which was first entered in 1562/3, will do as an example of this imprint, which lasted until Millet's death in the Autumn of 1692.
P.) Printed for W. Thackeray, E. M[illet], and A. M[ilbourn] 1692
Elizabeth Millet was granted administration of her husband's property on the strength of a bond signed on 24 November by herself and Alexander and Thomas Milbourn. I have only found one ballad with this imprint, The Wanton Wife of Bath (Wing W722, Rollins 2962). This does not occur in the 1675 entry, but it was entered as long before as 1600 and it does occur both in the Thackeray List and with the imprint O.
On 20 September 1712, almost exactly twenty years after John Millet's death, Charles Brown and Thomas Norris made an enormous entry in the Registers, which bears a resemblance to Thackeray's List. They staked their claim, a half share each, to 71 old Ballads, 6 old Broadsides, 46 old "Sheets & half", along with a number of "Three Sheet Books", "Stitcht Histories", "Bound Books", and "Books in 32". With the reemergence of provincial printing at the very end of the seventeenth century, the metropolitan trade in popular literature had begun to concentrate rather on chap-books than on ballads; Brown and Norris clung to what was still worth preserving of the latter.
Of what happened to the Ballad Warehouse during these twenty years I can give no account. I will, however, list the imprints I have come across from ballads of which all are included in Thackeray's List and all but two in the 1675 entry. I will also arrange them in the order in which I think they occurred, in the hope that someone may have evidence to prove the order right or wrong. I am unable to provide dates.
- a.) Printed by and for Alex. Milbourn at the
Stationers-Arms in Green-Arbour-Court in the Little
Old-Baily
- Elizabeth Millet probably only remained in the partnership until her husband's affairs were cleared up. Since I have not found the names of Thackeray and Milbourn together on a ballad imprint without that of a third partner, I guess that William Thackeray took the opportunity of Millet's departure to sell out to Milbourn, who tried to combine the functions of printer and distributor; hence the elaborate address. A pretty ballad of the Lord of Lorn (Wing P3322, Rollins 1547) will serve as an example.
- b.) Printed by and for A. M[ilbourn]
and
sold by
- (1) the Booksellers of London (Wing L264, Rollins 2677)[16]
- (2) the Booksellers of Pye Corner and London Bridge (Wing J764, Rollins 1301)
- Milbourn must have found distribution by himself too difficult; he therefore suggested that his ballads were available from the London trade in general and, when that failed, from the specialists in the two best known localities for the ballad trade. Even this must have been too vague, and he was forced to associate himself with a recognized wholesaling establishment, the Angel in Duck Lane—the old Ballad Warehouse. He may also have found the volume of printing too much for him. Hence
177
- c.) Printed for A. M[ilbourn],
W.
O[onley], and Tho. Thackeray at the Angel in
Duck-Lane (Wing J1180, Rollins 1336)
- A large number of ballads with this imprint, some with Milbourn's and Olney's names in full, have survived. It may have started in August 1694 when William Thackeray's son Thomas was free; it certainly lasted a number of years, but I have no idea what happened to Thomas Thackeray.
- d.) Printed for A. M. and W. O. (Wing P2881,
Rollins
2140)
- I have found very few ballads with this imprint, and they represent, perhaps, a period of reshuffling.
- e.) Printed by and for W. Onley at the Angel in Little
Britain; and A. Milbourn (Wing D489, Rollins 495)
- Onley had two presses, one in Little Britain and the other in Bond's Stables, near Chancery Lane. Dunton, in giving this information, praises Onley's speed of work and his ingenuity; he (Onley) must have thought that he could run the distribution of ballads—from the well-known Angel—as well as the printing of them. The small number of surviving ballads with this imprint suggests that he was quicker to discover his mistake than old Milbourn. Onley's enterprise and ingenuity also led him to infringe copy-rights (see Plomer's Dictionary, 1668-1725), and his entry into the ballad partnership may have been due to a threat of this. The Milbourn here must be a young Milbourn, but I have not been able to trace him in the Stationers' Company records; nor have I been able to find evidence for the retirement of either of the Milbourns.
- f.) Printed by and for W. O[nley],
and sold
by
- (1) the Booksellers (Crawford Coll. 1179; entered 1656)
- (2) the Booksellers of Pye Corner and London-bridge (Wing E3785, Rollins 2786)
- (3) J. Deacon, at the Angel in Guil-spur-street (Wing P448, Rollins 2882)
- (4) C. Bates at the Bible and Sun in Pye Corner (Wing K698, Rollins 1384)
- (5) J. Conyers in Leicester-field (Wing D969, Rollins 2510)
178
- After young Thackeray's retirement and the printers' short attempt to distribute by themselves, Onley and Milbourn went through the same sort of rigmarole as old Milbourn had tried some years earlier—general trade, ballad trade, and then individual booksellers known to be expert in this kind of distribution. It would be interesting to know what extra terms Bates and the others insisted on. It is worth noting, as a pointer to the specialization in this kind of business, that Mary Wright trained Jonah Deacon, who in turn trained Charles Bates, and that Joshua Conyers was free of the Company by patrimony. I have no evidence to suggest a chronological significance in the variations of this imprint; they may have been tried concurrently, but I have come across no example to suggest that some copies of the same printing of a ballad had "to be sold by J. Deacon" while others had "to be sold by C. Bates", as might have happened before 1655.
- g.) Printed by and for W[illiam]
O[nley]
and sold by
- (1) the Booksellers of Pye Corner and London Bridge (Wing W697, Rollins 2835)
- (2) J. Blare on London-Bridge (Wing P3446, Rollins 2195)
- (3) B. Deacon, at the Angel in Gilt-spur-street (Wing U88, Rollins 2007)
- (4) C. Bates in Pye Corner (Wing M242, Rollins 1615)
- (5) B. Deacon, in Guiltspur-street, and C. Bates, in Pye Corner (Wing P435, Rollins 395)
- Alternative (1) is by far the most fully represented of these imprints. The only other comments are that J. Blare died in 1706 (will proved 3 Dec., P.C.C. 225 Eedes), and that Bridget Deacon has taken the place of Jonah, who was dead by 1704.
- [h.) Printed by and for W. O. for T. Norris, at the Looking-glass on London-bridge
- This is put in, in brackets, as a possible bridge to Norris. The one example I have found of this imprint (Crawford Coll. 258) is not in Rollins nor in Thackeray's List; the arrangement between Olney and Norris may have been purely ad hoc.]
- i.) Printed by and for T. Norris, at the Looking-glass on London-bridge (Crawford Coll. 776, Rollins 2786)
- j.) Printed by and for T. Norris, and C. Brown, and sold at the Looking-glass on London-bridge
- Norris and Brown had taken the cream of the old Ballad Warehouse stock, and the Registers prove the continuity of the inheritance. But the glory has departed; you cannot expect to live on your capital for ever. Coles & Co. were essentially Black-Letter merchants who pinned their faith to the conservatism of ordinary people; unlike Brooksby and his partners, they were not interested in the topical and did little to keep their list up-to-date. When people turned against Black Letter at the end of the seventeenth century, their business, as carried on by their successors, was really finished. There was, of course, no nice clean ending; it guttered out in the stronger light of the eighteenth-century chap-book and the purely topical ballad. William Thackeray was the last of the old gang and, owing to the luck of surviving documents, the most interesting to us I can find no evidence for his departure, nor for his son's. Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall and retired while the going was good; perhaps they just died. Some one else may be able to supply evidence of one or the other.
In conclusion, I should like to repeat that I began this study because certain partnership imprints in Wing caught my eye. I have traced the existence, for upwards of 40 years, of a healthy partnership which was almost entirely concerned with the issuing of a single kind of publication. Whether the Ballad Partnership was ever called a "Conger" (as similar groups of booksellers were called in the eighteenth century), or whether the founders of the Printing Conger knew anything of the working of the Ballad Warehouse, I do not know. But the idea was in the air, and what was successful over a narrow publishing field was later adapted for the manufacture and sale of a wide variety of useful books.
- To avoid a dribble of testamentary references I list here those that I have been able to discover; the dates are those of proving.
- Thomas Pavier 17 Feb. 1627 P.C.C. 19 Hele.
- Cuthbert Wright 17 Dec. 1638 Arch. of London.
- John Grismond 31 Dec. 1638 P.C.C. 169 Lee.
- John Wright 21 March 1646 P.C.C. 35 Twisse.
- Edward Wright 20 May 1656 P.C.C. 183 Berkeley.
- John Wright (junior) 3 June 1658 P.C.C. 298 Wootton.
- William Gilbertson 15 April 1665 P.C.C. 38 Hyde.
- Francis Coles 21 Sept. 1680 Arch. of London.
- John Wright 20 Oct. 1684 P.C.C. 133 Hare.
- John Clarke 23 Dec. 1686 Arch. of London.
- Thomas Passinger 20 June 1688 P.C.C. 82 Exton.
- John Millet 24 Nov. 1692 Arch. of London.
APPENDIX
I group here the evidence I have been able to collect about the early training of the booksellers involved in this storv. Two points of interest emerge. One is the specialist nature of the ballad market; not only is there a strong family influence but the apprentices of ballad-merchants
| name | son of | master |
Years bd. for |
bound | free |
| Thomas Pavier | from Drapers' Company |
3 June 1600 | |||
| Henry Gosson | patrimony | 3 Aug. 1601 | |||
| John Wright | Mr. Windet | 6 June 1597 | 2 July 1605> | ||
| Cuthbert Wright | Mr. Kingston | 27 June 1603 | 1 Oct. 1610 | ||
| Edward Wright | John Wright | 6 Aug. 1604 | 12 Aug. 1611 | ||
| John Grismond | Edmund, of Lemster, Hereford, yeoman | Edmund White, senior | 7 | 18 Dec. 1609 | 2 Dec. 1616 |
| Francis Coles | Thomas, yeoman, of Northampton | Edw. Wright | 9 | 4 July 1615 | 1 July 1624 |
| Francis Grove | John, of Lynfield, Sussex | Tho. Langley | 13 May 1616 | 30 June 1623 | |
| John Wright | Richard, husbandman, of E. Haddon, Northants | Francis Coles | 7 | 21 June 1627 | 30 June 1634 |
| Thomas Vere | Ralph, gent., of Nordham (?), Kent | John Wright, junior | 9 | 14 Jan. 1635 | 3 Feb. 1644 |
| William Gilbertson | Francis, bookseller, of Guilford | John Wright, senior | 7 | 2 Nov. 1640 | 6 Dec. 1647 |
| John Wright | John | patrimony | 5 Oct. 1663 | ||
| John Clarke | (no information) | ||||
| William Thackeray | Thomas, Cit. & Barber-Surgeon | Francis Grove | 8 | 13 July 1657 | 5 Sept. 1664 |
| Thomas Passinger | Thomas, gent., of Guilford | Charles Tyas | 8 | 7 Sept. 1657 | 5 Feb. 1666 |
| John Millet | Caleb, Cit. & Haberdasher | Anne Purslowe | 7 | 22 Feb. 1675 | 26 June 1682 |
| Alexander Milbourn | Thomas | patrimony | 6 Dec. 1682 | ||
| William Onley | John, late Cit. & M. Tailor | James Cottrell | 7 | 3 Oct. 1681 | 4 Mar. 1689 |
| Thomas Passinger | John, gent., of Guilford | T. Passinger, uncle | 7 | 1 Oct. 1683 | 12 June 1693 |
| Thomas Thackeray | William | patrimony | 6 Aug. 1694 | ||
| Philip Brooksby | Philip, Cit. & M. Tailor | Eliz. Andrews | 7 | 5 May 1662 | 6 June 1670 |
| Jonah Deacon | Jonah, Cit. & Basket-Maker | Mary Wright | 8 | 23 June 1662 | 17 May 1671 |
| Josiah Blare | Thomas, Mealman, of Guilford | T. Passinger | 7 | 2 Aug. 1675 | 2 Oct. 1682 |
| John Back | Thomas, of Hinxhill(?) Kent | T. Passinger | 7 | 3 May 1675 | 3 April 1682 |
| William Whitwood | William, Taylor, of the Strand, decd. | W. Gilbertson | 7 | 30 Apr. 1659 | 4 May 1666 |
| Thomas Norris | Thomas, of Islington | Ben. Harris t.o. to Mary H. | 7 | 7 Apr. 1679 | 6 June 1687 |
| Charles Bates | Richard, Cit. & Stationer | Jonah Deacon | 7 | 4 June 1683 | 7 July 1690 |
| Charles Brown | John Thomas t.o. to Fishmonger | 3 Nov. 1690 | |||
| Joshua Conyers | Joshua | patrimony | 7 Nov. 1692 |
Notes
There are, of course, examples with ballads printed on both sides. These are not pieces of double value for the purchaser but exercises in economy on the part of the booksellers, who, from time to time, and particularly towards the end of the century, used up old stock for printing more popular ballads.
The official attitude of the Stationers' Company seems throughout to be somewhat half-hearted. The Court, at its meeting on 23 January 1620/1, solemnly rescinded an order of 19 May 1612 by which "5 printers onely should haue the printing of all ballads", and decreed "that the sellers of ballads may print their owne copies where they thinke good".
This is the story given by R. B. McKerrow in A Dictionary of Printers and Booksellers. . . . 1557-1640 (1910). But it appears from the State Papers (Domestic) that as late as 1 October 1618 Marin de Boislorée, the King's agent in France, was hoping to be rewarded for his services by the grant of this Patent and that he did not get it because he was a foreigner.
On 4 August 1626 Pavier's widow assigned to Brewster and Bird "His parte in any sorts of Ballads" along with other copyrights and "His Interest and title to any pictures and . . . . tables." Many of these, including the pictures but excluding the ballads, were reassigned to John Wright junior on 13 June 1642. I suspect that the ballads were reassigned without registration—as, of course, often happened, particularly where partnership adjustment was involved—before 1 June 1629 when Coles' name first appeared in the Registers as a partner. At the end of the same month the Symcocke invasion was finally cleared up. June seems to have been the regular stocktaking time.
It is understandable that assignees were unwilling to go to the expence of recording in the Registers small shares in large numbers of ballads; and I think that an open assignment of books may sometimes point to a private assignment of ballads.
There are two ballads quoted on pp. l and lviii of Vol. VIII (2) of the Ballad Society publications (Hertford, 1897) which carry the four names of this imprint but with M. Wright after T. Vere; both are topical and can be dated, for first publication, to the Autumn of 1660 and the Spring of 1661. They never found their way into the ballad stock and do not contradict what I have said above. See footnotes to imprints D and H below.
Oddly enough, a few ballads have survived with the initial R instead of W for Gilbertson. Rachel was William's widow but her name, so far as I have found it, only appears on topical ballads not listed in the 1675 entry. One example, which cannot have been printed before June 1665, is The loyal Victory, obtained . . . . June the 2d and 3d 1665 (Bod. Wood 402, f. 96). The bringing in of the widows on ballads of current interest and outside the general run of the stock, is an interesting feature. See footnote to imprints B above and H below.
Printed off before Coles' death but with intention to publish with Vol. II late in 1680 or early in 1681.
There is a topical ballad in the Pepys Collection, Rebellion Given over Housekeeping, with the odd imprint, "Printed for J.W., J.C., W.T., T.P. & M.C.", where M.C. is presumably Mary Coles. But it is not in the regular ballad stock and need not disturb the pattern. Cf. the similar Mary Wright and Rachel Gilbertson imprints referred to in footnotes to imprints B and D above.
How he acquired it is not known; that so few ballads listed by Thackeray, are in the Pepys Collection suggests that the acquisition was much later than the date in the document.
I have already recorded my inability to find a record of John Clarke as a freeman of the Stationers' Company. This and the omission of his name from the partnership list in this document suggest that he was free of another Company; but his connection with Killigrew would make him a useful partner.
I interpret this to mean that, while unused paper carried as stock was to be valued at cost, i.e. at 5/- a ream of ?510 sheets, printed ballads, etc., which were often sold by the quire, were to be valued at twice this amount, a ream of paper making two "reams" of ballads as reckoned by the partners. This would fit in with the agreement by which Thackeray supplied the paper and Millet and Milbourn did the printing—a roughly 50-50 arrangement.
| | |