PYNSON, Richard ( - 1529) ‹ LBT 28537 ›

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Floruit: 1529

Floruit 1529 (A) — 1529 (A);  Male, married

Known Alternative Names

Alternative Name	Comment
Richard Pinson	Ames

Life Events

Event	Date	Source
Death	- after 15 Nov 1529 <Will> - before 18 Feb 1530 <Probate>
Burial	To be buried in the churchyard of St.Clement's without Temple Bar. (Plomer "Wills")

Will

Will (Ref., Piece, Image)	Will Dates	Intestate	Probate Dates	Administration Dates	Comments
PCC 15 Jankyn					Plomer "Wills"

Executors

Executor	Relation	Comment
Robert CHIDLEY

Family Relationships

LBTNumber	Name	Relationship	Occupation	Comments
5133	PYNSON, (Unknown) ‹ LBT 05133 ›	spouse
35375	PYNSON, Margaret ‹ LBT 35375 ›	child

Occupations (1)

Occupation	Comment
Printer	Duff, E.G. (1905)

Had Apprentice(s): (1)

Name	Premium	Paid By	Comments
SNOW, John ‹ LBT 30096 ›			Duff, E.G. (1905)

Addresses (2)

Date	Address	Trade at Addr	Source	Comment
0000	Temple Bar		Plomer"W"	- without
0000	St Dunstan's Church		Plomer"W"	- Sign of St George, next to

Events (2)

Date	Event type	Description
1529	Appr - Binding	John Snowe [LBT/X]
1529	Appr - Binding	Richard Withers [LBT/X]

SOURCES & TRANSCRIPTIONS

Transcriptions

Bib.Soc., Hand-lists (1913), contrib. E.G.Duff.

Duff, E.G. (1905), pp.126-7

PYNSON (RICHARD), printer in London, was a Norman by birth, and appears to have been educated at the University of Paris, for his name is found in a list of students in 1464. He appears to have learnt to print at Rouen with Guillaume le Talleur who printed two books for him after he had come to England. Machlinia { MACHLINIA, William de ‹ LBT 30054 › }, who monopolised the printing of law books in England, ceased to print some time after 1486 and Pynson apparently came over to succeed him in a position for which his knowledge of Norman-French peculiarly fitted him.

Coming over between 1486 and 1490 Pynson set to work to start his press, and in the meantime commissioned Le Talleur to print for him Littleton's Tenures and Statham's Abridgement. Pynson's earliest dated book was finished in November, 1492, but at least five books were issued earlier and one of these an edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales almost certainly before the death of Caxton in 1491. The first dated book issued by Pynson was the Doctrinale of Alexander Grammaticus finished on the 13th of November, 1492, in the Parish of St. Clement Danes outside Temple Bar. In 1495 Pynson issued an edition of the Hecyra of Terence probably intended for use at Eton. In 1499 he printed a Promptorius puerorum for Frederick Egmont { EGMONT, Frederick ‹ LBT 28383 › } and Peter Post Pascha { }.

During the fifteenth century Pynson printed about eighty-four books, using in them seven distinct founts of type and three devices. In 1500 Pynson and some others brought an action in the Star Chamber against Henry Squire and his companions for assault. It appears to have been one of the usual attacks by natives on foreign workmen then so common, but Pynson stated that his servants were so terrorised that they had left him and his work was consequently at a standstill. [Leadam, Select cases, pp. 114-118.] The evident outcome of this case was the removal by Pynson in 1500 of his printing office from St. Clement's Parish, which was outside the City, to a house within Temple Bar at the corner of Chancery Lane and Fleet Streeet next to St. Dunstan’s Church, which had belonged to the College of St. Stephen in Westminster and to which he gave the sign of the George or St.George. Here he continued for the rest of his life.

In 1506 Pynson, apparently assisted by a certain Hugo Meslier { MESLIER, Hugo ‹ LBT 30658 › }, printed an edition of the Principia of Peregrinus de Lugo for George Chastelain { CHASTELAIN, George ( - 1513) ‹ LBT 28376 › } an Oxford bookseller. In 1508, some time after May, on the death of William Faques { FAQUES, William ‹ LBT 28385 › }, Pynson succeeded him as Printer to the King. At first he received an annuity of two pounds and in 1515 the sum was raised to four pounds. This position carried with it the title of Esquire and the right to bear arms which Pynson immediately assumed and which are found the following year in his edition of the Ship of Fools.

In 1508 he printed two books in Roman type, the first used in England. In 1521 Pynson printed the Assertio septem sacramentorum and as King’s printer continued to issue political and sontroversial books concerned with the Reformation. No book of Pynson’s in known issued after June 18th, 1528, and we have no information concerning the last eighteen months of his life. During his whole career he is known to have printed at least three hundred and seventy-one books, and he made use of seven devices. [Bibl.Soc.Handlist.]

Pynson was also a binder and used two panels. One contains his monogram on a shield surrounded with a broad border and almost identical in desing with his device No. 3 [Duff Earl Printed Books, p.193, illust.] The other has in the centre the Tudor rose with a border of foliage and flowers and vine leaves in the corners.

Pynson died at the beginning of 1530 and his will dated November 15th, 1529, was proved the following 18th February. He left considerable property in Chancery Lane and Totenham. He leftbequest to his apprentices Joyn Snowe { SNOW, John ‹ LBT 30096 › } and Richard Withers { WITHERS, Richard ‹ LBT 30120 › }. He had only one child alive, a daughter Margaret who had married first a William Campion, probably a stationer, by who she had two children Amye and Joane, and secondly a man named Warde.

Pynson’s son Richard is described as recently deceased, leaving a daughter Joan, who married in 1537. It is clearly this Richard Pynson the son who took out letters of denization in 1513. for Pynson the elder could not have risen to be King’s printer and have the right to bear arms without being a denizen. Indeed he was presumably naturalized, but the son who from his age must have been born abroad would require letters of denization also [D.N.B. Bibl Soc.Handlist. Duff, Early Printed Books, pp. 165-170.]