WALDEGRAVE (ROBERT), printer in London, 1578-1589, (?) at Rochelle, 1589, and in Edinburgh, 1589-1603; London: (1) Without Temple Bar in the Strand, near unto Somerset House; (2) The Crane in St. Paul's Churchyard. Son of Richard Waldegrave, or Walgrave, of Blacklay in the county of Worcester, yeoman. Apprentice to William Griffith { GRIFFITH, William ‹ LBT 07559 › }, stationer of London, for eight years from June 24th, 1568 [Arber, i. 372]. Robert Waldegrave made his first entry in the Registers on June 17th, 1578 [Arber, ii. 328]. From the outset of his career he appears to have attached himself to the Puritan party, and in 1581 we find him employed to print John Knox's Confession and other Scottish books. In the year 1582-3 he gave the Company of Stationers a bond of £40 not to print anything of Seres' patent [Arber, i. 501]. When in 1583 the agitation was begun against the privileged printers, Robert Waldegrave joined the malcontents [Arber, ii. 784]. At that time he is returned as having two presses. In the following year [1583-4] he is found borrowing five pounds of the Company, which he repaid twelve months later, and in 1584 we find him printing for John Harrison { HARRISON, John ( - 1617) ‹ LBT 07622 › }, junior, who afterwards went to Edinburgh in connection with Waldegrave's pirated edition of the Arcadia. In that year a warrant of the High Commissioners was directed to the Wardens of the Company to seize Robert Waldegrave, his workmen and presses, with all unlicensed books [Records of the Company of Stationers]. This was no doubt in connection with the two following books printed in that year, A brief declaration concerning the desires of all those faithfull ministers that do seek for the discipline and Reformation of the Church of England, and a work in two parts, called respectively A dialogue concerning the strife of our Church, and A declaration of some such monstrous abuses as our Bishops have not been ashamed to foster. For this Waldegrave was thrown into the White Lyon prison in Southwark for six weeks, and again in 1585 he was imprisoned there for twenty weeks, for printing Puritan literature [see Hay any worke for Cooper, ed. Petheram, p. 68]. Again in 1588 the records of the Company state that a press with two pair of cases was seized from Robert Walgrave and ordered to be defaced, for printing John Udall's work entitled The state of the Church of England laid open, etc., and the books to be burned. However, the printer and his wife {Agnes WALGRAVE, Agnes ‹ LBT 03142 › } appear to have had warning as they succeeded in carrying away a small portion of type. Waldegrave then managed to secure another press which he set up at (?) Kingston upon Thames, where he printed a second edition of the Exhortation of John Penry. From thence Waldegrave removed his press to Mrs. Crane's house at East Molesey, and there he printed the first of the famous Marprelate tracts, generally known as the Epistle. The hierarchy and the Company of Stationers raised a "hue and cry" all over the country, and fearing discovery it was decided to move the press again, and it was carried to Northamptonshire to Fawsley House, the residence of Sir Richard Knightley. There, the second of Martin's tracts, known as the Epitome, was printed, after which the press was removed to Coventry where the third Martinist pamphlet, Hay any work for Cooper, was printed in March, 1588/9. By this time Waldegrave had had enough of the dangerous work. The close confinement was affecting his health, and some of his Puritan friends had expressed their strong dislike of Martin's methods. He therefore gave it up, and successfully evading his pursuers, is said to have reached Rochelle, and there to have printed two more Puritan tracts. Whether Waldegrave visited Rochelle or not, it would seem that he was at Edinburgh about the end of 1589, for on March 13th, 1589/90, he received a license from the Privy Council of Scotland to print the Confession of Faith [Dickson and Edmond, p. 407], and this appeared with his imprint in 1590. On October 9th, 1590, he was appointed King's printer [Lee, App. viii], and from this time until 1603 his press was actively at work, upwards of one hundred books having been noted with his Edinburgh imprint. Among these was a pirated edition of Sidney's Arcadia [Library, April, 1900, pp. 195=204]. For device he used the cut of a swan standing on a wreath within an oval frame bearing the motto "God is my helper" ; he also used John Ross' devices and initial letters. His son Robert was baptised in Edinburgh on September 26th, 1596, one of the witnesses being the "Lord Ambassidour" [Scottish Antiquary, iv. 174]. On the accession of James to the English throne in 1603, Waldegrave returned to London, and on June 11th of that year a book was entered to him in the Stationers' Register. His Edinburgh printing materials passed into the hands of Thomas Finlason, who on March 31st, 1604, purchased from Widow Waldegrave her late husband's privilege for printing certain books. In the Public Record Office is a Proclamation of February 16th, 1604, concerning search for gold and silver mines, which bears the imprint of Widow Waldegrave, Edinburgh. [D.N.B: Arber, Introductiory sketch to M.M. Controversy, pp. 84-104, 124-5, 179-81 ; J. D. Wilson in the Library, October, 1907, pp. 337-59; Works of Nashe, ed. McKerrow, v. 184-90; Dickson and Edmond, Annals; Aldis, Scottish Books].
