The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21).
Volume IV. Prose and Poetry: Sir Thomas North to Michael Drayton.
§ 16. Richard Grafton
Among the earlier men, Richard Grafton holds a distinguished place. In conjunction with Edward Whitchurch, he was concerned in the publication of the English Bibles of 1537 and 1539, printed at Antwerp and Paris respectively, and afterwards began printing on his own account, his press being largely occupied with the production of service books, for the printing of which he and Whitchurch obtained an exclusive patent in 1544. In 1547, he was appointed printer to king Edward VI, and several of the issues of the Book of Common Prayer bear his imprint. On the death of the king, miscalculating the drift of political events, he printed the proclamation of lady Jane Grey and was deprived of his office by queen Mary. Besides issuing John Hardyng’s Chronicle in 1543, and editions of Edward Hall’s Union of Lancaster and York in 1548 and 1550, Grafton himself compiled an Abridgement of the Chronicles of England, which was published by his son-in-law Richard Tottel in 1562, and A Chronicle at Large, issued also by Tottel in 1569. Tottel’s serious business in life was the printing of law books, for which he received a patent in 1552; but he is, perhaps, better known as the publisher of Tottel’s Miscellany, first issued in 1557, and of which there were at least seven other editions before the end of the century. He was also a partner with John Cawood, and John Walley in the publication of the folio edition of Sir Thomas More’s Works, which bears the same date as the first edition of the Miscellany.