The Eighteenth-Century Short-Title Catalogue
and Provincial Imprints

INTRODUCTION

Over the last five years, a number of major bibliographical products have been published on CD-ROM., including the retrospective catalogues of major libraries - such as those of the British Library or the Bodleian, national bibliographies such as the BNB, or else a host of specialised publications listing publications by subject, period or place of publication. These products have proved to be a boon for historians and bibliographers wishing to search for, or to locate, publications according to specific criteria that would not have been possible from traditional hard-copy compilations. As is apparent to anyone using a modern library catalogue, computerised information may be approached from all kinds of different avenues, and not merely the traditional means of author, title, and standardised subject.

Likewise, the last two years have seen a dramatic fall in the price of the hardware necessary to access this storage medium, and in the computer capacity required to handle and process large numbers of records. Typical middle-range microcomputers on sale today will have an integral CD-ROM drive, together with sufficient memory and hard disk space to be able to download and manipulate large numbers of bibliographic records. As a result bibliographers and print historians now have access to a tool which can provide them with some concrete quantitative evidence that has so frequently been lacking from their studies in the past. The object of this paper is to demonstrate some of the techniques that can be used for acquiring such data from large-scale bibliographical products and to describe some of the ways in which it might be processed. The paper also seeks to warn of some of the potential problems and pitfalls in placing too much reliance upon it.

All of the examples described below are all taken from the Eighteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue on CD-ROM (ESTC) and relate either to the information that can be gained from analysing imprints or else from additional information added to the records identifying the country of publication or language. This is because these subjects happened to be of interest to the writer. The same techniques could equally well be used for processing other information contained in the entries (derived from authors, words appearing in titles, format, genre etc.) or equally to information retrieved from a large number of other bibliographical publications. Another possibility might be the compilation of composite databases with records taken from a number of different sources - for example a database a works printed in a particular city or by a particular tradesman.

The paper is in four parts. The first section seeks to describe the content and scope of ESTC and some of the ways in which information may be retrieved from it. The second section describes how the numbers of records matching specific criteria can be used for statistical analysis. The third section deals with the ways in which imprint information may be processed to compile directory information identifying the printers and booksellers who were active at a given place and at a given time. The fourth section presents preliminary results from such a database.

ESTC ON CD-ROM

The Eighteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue project was initiated at a conference in 1976, jointly sponsored by the British Library and the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies. The British Library initiated a pilot project to run from 1977-1983 to catalogue their own holdings in machine readable form. Similarly a pilot project in the USA was established in 1979 by the New York Public Library. From these beginnings the project has both continued and grown rapidly in scope so that by 1992 it included the holdings of more than 550 libraries in the UK, nearly 700 libraries in the USA and Canada, and 61 libraries elsewhere (notably Western Europe and Australia). From the outset the ESTC file was made available to users online via the British Library Automated Information Service (BLAISE) in the United Kingdom and through the Research Libraries Information Network (RLIN) in the USA. The complete file to mid 1990 was also published on microfiche in mid-1991, and on CD-ROM in mid-1992.

ESTC is, of course, the largest and most ambitious of a distinguished series of 'short-title catalogues' covering the retrospective bibliography of British and English language printing before the advent of mechanised printing. The predecessors include Pollard and Redgrave's Short-title catalogue ... 1475-1640, and Donald Wing's Short-title catalogue ... 1641-1700. ESTC is however the only one that was specifically designed to be compiled and interrogated as a machine readable file, and includes considerably more bibliographical detail than its predecessors. There is however currently a project in process to make the earlier material available in the same electronic format.

The ESTC database seeks to include all surviving letterpress printed in Britain and her colonies, in any language, between 1701 and 1800, together with materials published in the English language anywhere else in the world between those dates. However there are certain clearly defined exceptions (serial publications, bookplates, trade cards, playbills and printed forms). At the end of 1991 there were 280,000 discrete publications recorded on the database represented by several millions of located copies. Yet, even at this stage the project is far from complete. The holdings of many academic and national libraries in Britain, the USA and Western Europe are included, but there remain large numbers of smaller and more specialised collections which have not yet been recorded, and of course countless surviving titles in private hands. Thus the total number of survivals from the period may well be double those already recorded. How many other publications there were during the century, which have failed to survive, is anyone’s guess.

Each record on the database contains the following items of information:

· ESTC Record Number (including any superseded record number),

· Personal or Corporate Author, Meeting Name, Name Type (given in accordance with the name authority files maintained by the Library of Congress.)

· Title, including Collective title and Uniform title. (Titles are now usually given in full, or at least with all significant components.)

· Edition statement, Imprint, Date.

· Collation, Format

· Country of publication, Language, Genre (e.g. advertisements, almanacs, directories, prospectuses, single sheet verse).

· Notes, References in other bibliographical tools, References to Microfilm copies.

· Locations.

Many of these fields may be searched, either whole or in part (for example a user may search for a complete title, a phrase appearing within a title, or else one or more individual words appearing within a title). Eighteenth century publications pose particular cataloguing problems resulting from frequent variations in spelling and orthography that were common during the period. Thus there are also word truncation facilities enabling searches for a range of words with the same stem or with variant spellings. Searching for TR?AL would identify TRIAL or TRYAL, and CONFESS$ would search for CONFESS, CONFESSOR, CONFESSION etc.

One of the great advantages of computerised is the ability to combine a number of different search criteria using logical and relational operators (and, or, not, greater than, less than, equal to) in order to construct highly specific searches. Using these facilities it would be a relatively straightforward task to identify all those works printed in London between 1743 and 1749 that were not in the English language, and whose imprints contained the names of booksellers from either Bath or Bristol - or some other equally obscure set of criteria.

In addition to the search facilities, users may also browse through a number of computer generated indexes of words appearing in specific fields, and then display the relevant entries, or combine them with other search terms. No attempt has been made to create indexes which cope with such spelling variations as 'trial' or 'tryal' within titles, but the author entries have been standardised, and account has been taken of variant forms and spellings of place name within the place of publication of field, but not elsewhere within the imprint. Thus a search for York as a place of publication, would also identify imprints with the Latin word Eboracum.

Having carried out a search, or else located an appropriate term by browsing one of the index, the user may then move directly to viewing a brief display consisting of the ESTC Record Numbers, truncated author and title, and date. Those titles required for more detailed display or output may then be identified and selected. Search results are automatically provided in author title-order but up to 1000 records may subsequent be sorted chronologically. There are three further display formats available, Detailed Format (giving the full range of information broken down into fields and sub-fields), ESTC format (providing a catalogue card type entry) and a user-defined format. The results of searches may then be printed or downloaded to disk in any of the above formats. The great advantage of the latter course is that the records may then be further processed or incorporated with other material and printed out at a later date.[1]

ESTC AS A STATISTICAL TOOL

The number of entries that satisfy a given search criteria are displayed during the process of searching, and these may be collected and used for quantitative analysis. ESTC was never designed or intended to be used as a statistical tool, but, if used with care, a database of more than three-quarters of a million items could provide some useful data for comparative purposes. Before doing so, it is however important to take into account a number of basic factors relating to the design and composition of the database, which will inevitably effect the results of any search.

. The basic of an ESTC record is an identifiable edition of a document or work. One entry could represent a half sheet broadside or a dozen large folio volumes. It would therefore be unwise to regard the number of entries alone as anything more than a crude measure of printing output. Also, as mentioned above certain important categories of printing are deliberately excluded. Thus it would be meaningless to seek to compare the volume of output of a printer in a University town who’s name is perhaps found on substantial academic works, with another in a provincial town or city who concentrated on a wide variety of printed ephemera and a weekly local newspaper.

. Although ESTC provides a large number of records, it can never be regarded as a truly representative sample, both in terms of what once existed, and what has been added to the database. Substantial and worthy ‘academic’ or religious texts are enormously over-represented compared with the entertaining, the ephemeral, or printing required only for business purposes. This is both a reflection on what has survived and what has been collected by the major academic and research libraries which have so far been the major contributors to the project.

. There are also important problems associated with the comparison of the numbers of items printed at different provincial towns, because some local collections have been recorded whereas others have not. There is a great deal of provincial material included on the database, but coverage is rather patchy. Exeter and Newcastle, for example, appear to be very well covered, perhaps because of the enthusiasm of a few individuals, whereas Bristol and Bath are not. Other important provincial printing centres probably fall somewhere between. It is likely that a higher proportion of new entries will in future be for items printed outside London, Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Dublin.

. One of the bases of any historical comparison is likely to be the date an item was printed. However it is not always possible to identify the date of a publication with any accuracy, and therefore it has to be assigned a speculative date according to a set of rules. For example, 19% of the entries for 1701 have an estimated date, or date assigned from information within the publication as opposed to on the imprint. Thus in any year-by year comparison there are bound to be distortions. Yet whilst the specific year may be in doubt it is usually possible to assign a publication to a particular decade with more confidence. See Figure 1 below.

. As with any human creation, and particularly one compiled by a large number of individuals, the database does contain a number of mistakes. There are occasional duplicated or mistaken entries, and in the early days of the project the full imprints were not always transcribed - merely a phrase to indicate the presence of further names. There are also a few examples of where the date given for indexing purposes does not correspond with the date of the imprint, or else where the country of publication does not correspond with the town or city of publication. Many of these mistakes only become apparent when records are downloaded and re-sorted.

However, in spite of all the above-mentioned reservations, it is possible to generate a variety of graphs and charts, based upon the statistics available. A few examples are provided of many others which might be compiled by inputting search results into a spreadsheet.

For example, it is a relatively simple task to plot the growth in importance of English provincial printing, simply by searching the database for all items printed in England in a given decade and then excluding those printed in London. Searching for entries within a specific period is carried out using the relational operators, ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’. The results are expressed both in terms of the number of relevant items on the database, and the percentage of the total for the same period. See Figure 2 below.

Figure 1 - There are noticeable peaks in the years 1701, 1710, 1720, and 1730, which are due to the cataloguing rules used by ESTC for assigning dates rather than any change in the printing patterns at the end of each decade.

Figure 2 - Although the lower of the two lines describes a relatively smooth path, the upper line indicates that there were some significant factors influencing the development of provincial printing between 1730 and 1750, which would require further investigation and explanation.

Likewise it is equally straightforward to plot the output of all the presses outside London, by searching for the appropriate country code, and in the case of England, subtracting those items printed in London. The resulting graph shows the changing relative importance of provincial England, Scotland, Ireland and the USA throughout the century. Unfortunately the equivalent figures for Wales and for other countries would be too small to figure.

Figure 3 - shown as a three dimensional chart. Note the effect of the American war and the Declaration of Independence on the output of the presses in the USA.

Table 1 shows the number of entries for the twenty most important printing centres for ESTC items outside London for the period 1701-1710, and emphasises the overwhelming dominance of the metropolis, which was then responsible for 80% of the total output. The seemingly high figures for Edinburgh are due in part to the different legal system in Scotland, which insisted that many official documents should be printed. There are in all 57 towns listed as places of publication for this decade, many of which have only 1 item surviving, which has frequently assigned to an otherwise unknown press in the town because of the local nature of the subject matter rather than any evidence in the imprint. Figure 4, on the other hand, provides snapshots of those countries printing items recorded in ESTC at both the beginning and the end of the century, for purposes of comparison.

Table 1 - The number of items printed in each town 1701-1710. The number of cities and towns either on the Continent or else in America, which are represented on this list is noteworthy, whereas many relatively important provincial English cites - such as Worcester, Nottingham or Chester are absent.

Figure 4 - Note the decline in the relative importance of London, although of course there was a huge increase in printing activity in the city during the century which is not represented in these pie charts. The discrepancy in the figures between the first of these pie charts and Table 1 results from a different method of retrieving the data, and is probably due to entries on the database where the country of publication and place of publication do not correspond. However neither of these sets of figures can be regarded as anything more than an approximation or an indication of trends.

The graphs illustrated so far have been related to place of publication. However it would be just as simple to plot other features such as language of publication, or some words which might indicate subject content. Unfortunately the database is not designed to allow for searching by either genre or format. In order to carry out comparisons in these fields, it would be necessary first to download a representative number of records, and then search them using alternative software.

Almost ninety-five per cent of the entries on the database are in the English language, 2.5% are in the ‘classical’ languages (Latin, Greek, and Hebrew), a further 2.4% are in modern European languages and only 0.27% are in minority British languages (Welsh, Irish and Gaelic). Figure 5 plots the steady decline in the relative importance of Latin publishing throughout the century, and figure 6 compares printing in the Welsh language with printing in Wales.

Figure 5 - Items printed in Latin together with another language are not featured on this graph. Items with more than one language may however be identified using the language code ‘MUL’.

Figure 6 - The differences between the two columns are reflected by the importance of English border towns such as Shrewsbury or Chester as centres of Welsh publishing at the beginning of the century, and the later advent of printing in Carmarthen and Wrexham. The figures for 1771-1780 appear to be anomalous, but the number of titles involved is so small that a stray survival of a collection of broadsheets from one printer could seriously skew the result.

Figure 7 plots the apparent sudden and dramatic decline in the number of items in the French

language on the ESTC database after the French Revolution. However, in this instances there may be further complicating factors due to the relatively large number of items, printed in France, with the fictional imprint “Londres” during the first three quarters of the century.

There is no subject searching available on the database, but approximate searches can be undertaken for keywords, either in the titles or anywhere in the record. Thus figure 7 demonstrates the relative decline in the importance of the printed sermon, by plotting the numbers of items including the truncated word sermon anywhere within a record, against the total number of records for that decade.

Figure 7 - The number of sermons as a percentage of total output. Once again the figures for 1741-1750 appear to be anomalous.

As mentioned above, the various analyses described above are only relevant for identifying general trends in the history of printing and perhaps for highlighting seeming anomalies which require further investigation or explanation. However, there is in addition, a mass of specific factual information on the individual members of the book trades and their working relationships which is to be found in the imprints of publications. The final section of this paper therefore describes techniques used for isolating and downloading imprint information into a more formal structure within which individual elements may be compared.

A DATABASE OF PROVINCIAL IMPRINTS

The object of the exercise was to create a database of early eighteenth century provincial imprints, which would seek to identify the names, capacities (whether printer, distributor of bookseller with financial responsibility for publication), operating dates, and places appearing on provincial imprints from 1701-1725. For the purposes of the exercise, a provincial imprint was define as either:

· an item printed in England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales other than in London, Edinburgh or Dublin.

Or,

· an item printed in London, Edinburgh or Dublin, which also includes the names of one or more provincial booksellers in the imprint.

The database was not restricted to provincial tradesmen, but also the names of those traders in London, Edinburgh or Dublin who appear to have had connections with them. Books ‘printed for’ or ‘sold by’ their authors are not however included unless they also contained the name of an established tradesman. The initial investigation was limited to the period 1701-1725, partly for practical reasons in terms of the likely number of entries, and partly because the period was co-terminus with Plomer’s Dictionary.[2] Just over 2,800 items meeting these criteria were ultimately identified, representing just under 7% of the total ESTC entries for Britain in the same period.

Methodology

Five stages in this process were identified, which will be described in detail below. These were:

1. Identify the provincial towns represented in the imprints of ESTC items

2. Searching for those records which include the identified place names and downloading the required information from each record into a file.

3. Remove duplicate entries

4. Process the downloaded information into a standardised format

5. The creation of a new database

Stage 1 - Identifying Provincial Imprints

This stage was probably the most complex and time consuming, due primarily to the structure of the ESTC database. Although it is possible to identify the place of printing within an imprint using the CD-ROM, this is not possible with any degree of precision for the other places mentioned within an imprint. The variant forms of spelling for places of printing have been standardised, with cross references between Latin, Welsh or English forms, but this has not been done with the remainder of the imprint. The best that can be done is to search for a keyword within the imprint, but this will then retrieve some unwanted records where the surname of a metropolitan bookseller, or a street name in London - such as Warwick Court contains a word which the same as a provincial town.

More than ninety per cent of the relevant records can be tracked down using a ‘pearl growing’ technique, by identifying British items not printed in the capital cities and analysing the other towns and cities appearing in their imprints, and then searching for these towns. However, the identification of the final 10% was much more problematic, since these may either be an eccentrically spelled or non-English version of some town that has already been identified, or else a small market town that only appears on a single imprint, and which would not therefore be identified by ‘pearl growing’. Ultimately it was necessary to trawl through the index to words appearing in the imprints looking for towns or forms of names not already identified, and then searching for the relevant entries.

The names of 153 provincial cities, towns and villages were ultimately found to appear on imprints before 1726, either in conjunction with named booksellers, or else with a phrase such as ‘the booksellers of ....’. A preliminary survey of the next twenty five years revealed that a further 101 towns and villages would be added to that list.

Stage 2 Searching and Downloading

Having identified the relevant place names and variants, searches were carried out to identify the records to be downloaded. Where possible a search would incorporate a number of towns within a region at the same time (e.g. York or Eboracum or Leeds or Halifax) building up large sets of records. This technique tended to cut down on the number of duplicate entries (those containing the names of several provincial places) which would have to be removed at a later stage. However the ESTC software imposes a maximum of 200 records that may be downloaded at one time, with the result that the task was more time consuming, and resulted in more files than would otherwise be necessary. These then had to be combined into a single large file for further processing.

Since the object of the exercise was to study the information found in imprints, only the imprint and the ESTC record number were required, and a user-defined output format was created for this specific purpose. The ESTC record number was required for two purposes - to provide a key to the complete record on the CD-ROM, should this be required, and to provide a means of removing any duplicate entries.

Stage 3 - Removing the duplicate entries

The various downloaded files were loaded into a word processor where they were combined into a single large file. All copyright notices, multiple spaces and carriage return characters were then removed by means of ‘search and replace’ techniques (replacing the relevant words or characters with nothing). The file was then converted into a form in which it could be pasted into a spreadsheet and sorted by ESTC numbers (the manner in which this was done is described in the Appendix to this article to avoid the unnecessary use of technical jargon within the body of the text).

The de-duplication process involved making a second copy of the ESTC record numbers, which are all in the form of a letter of the alphabet - t, n, or w (denoting the origin of the record) followed by six digits. The second copies were then translated into ‘true’ numbers (i.e. without any alphabetical characters) and duplicate entries are then identified and removed using a formula which compared each number with the one immediately prior to it. (The actual techniques employed are described in the Appendix). Having removed all duplicates, the next stage was to process the imprints so that the information contained within them would appear in a standardised form.

Stage 4 - Processing the records

Most eighteenth century imprints convey information about the book following a general pattern, although not with complete regularity. The formulae used in imprints were designed to convey information about the publishing and marketing of the book to members of the book trade and were understood by all concerned. The imprint will usually tend to identify some or all of the following features:

· Place of printing

· Printer’s name (frequently denoted ‘printed by’)

· Name of the person or persons who financed the work (usually denoted ‘printed for’)

· The address(es) of such person(s)

· The names of any distributors (usually denoted ‘sold by’)

· The addresses of any distributors

· The date of publication

However the imprints may be in English, Latin, Welsh, or any other language. Some elements will be missing, others may be repeated if, for example, there are a number of distributors. On occasions the same individual will be carrying out two or more of the functions - ‘printed and sold by’, ‘printed for and sold by’. Some imprints are terse, others include words not strictly necessary to perform their function. Some are deliberately misleading.

The object of processing the imprints is to put them into a form where they may be incorporated into a computer database with fields reflecting the main elements of the imprint. Table 1, below shows a tiny part of the finished database, which contains 6,500 derived from 2,800 entries.

Table 1 - Where there are seemingly duplicate entries for the same book, this is because the tradesmen appears in the imprint in more than one capacity (pr= printed by, pf= printed for, sb = sold by). Where the field is blank no name is provided on the imprint.

Translating the imprints into this form involves a number of steps:

1. remove any redundant words (e.g. ‘printed in the year’)

2. To regularise any assigned dates (e.g. ‘[1701]’ or ‘[1701?]’ becomes ‘1701’

3. to expand conflated entries (e.g. ‘Printed and sold by William Chase’ becomes ‘Printed by William Chase sold by William Chase’)

4. standardise variant forms of place or surnames

5. standardise the order in which the elements appear within the imprint

6. to translate the names of individuals into a form which can be sorted (e.g. ‘F. Burges’ or ‘Fr. Burges’ into ‘Burges, Francis’

These tasks require the use of a number of fairly standard computer applications including a word processor, spreadsheet and simple database. A number of the more repetitive tasks can also be translated into Macros (groups or lists of keyboard instructions which may act upon). However the degree of sophistication of the computer applications does not have to be great and all of the tasks can be performed using a relatively inexpensive integrated software product such as Microsoft Works (either the later Windows versions or the original DOS version).

The techniques employed to undertake these tasks are described in an appendix to this paper to avoid the unnecessary use of technical jargon in the body of the text.

RESULTS

The work undertaken so far has generated a list of 436 provincial tradesmen or partnerships at work in 145 towns specifically named in imprints before 1726 and a further eight towns suggested as the place of publication. 43% of the tradesmen are not in Plomer’s Dictionary, and a further 13% of the entries give significantly new information extending the known date of working. Initial results for the period after 1725 indicate that these percentages are likely to be considerably higher.

The newly created database can of course be sorted according to any of the elements, and could be used to identify familial relationships between provincial printers and booksellers working in different towns, or else use to track down the movements of individuals. In addition, it might be used as a tool to help identify those metropolitan tradesmen who had particular dealings with the provincial trade and to plot the growth of regional book distribution networks.

Of course, information derived form imprints alone provides only a very partial picture of the work of the provincial book trade at this time. Fore example, there are a number of towns which appear in the imprints of ‘Wing’ books of the 1680s and 1690s which do not appear on this list - a few examples being Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Blandford, Coggeshall, Uttoxeter, or Yeovil. Similarly, the author knows from his own researches that there were established booksellers in the Norfolk towns of Aylsham, Harleston and Thetford before 1725, but no imprints appear naming these towns until after 1750. However, in spite of the many limitations of this exercise, this does provide one of the few means of getting an overview of the country printing and bookselling trades in the early eighteenth century which would not be apparent from more local detailed studies.

Unfortunately the database is far too large to reproduce in full in this paper, and so only a part is given below. The entries below give the earliest and latest dates of provincial tradesmen, together with an indication of their trade as printer or bookseller (or both). The number of times each name appears in imprints. If a name appears twice in an imprint in different capacities (e.g. printer and distributor, or financier and distributor) then they are counted twice. The formula [unnamed printer] is used where no printer’s name appears on the imprint, and [unnamed booksellers] where there is a non-specific phrase such as “the booksellers of Derby”. The formual [unlisted bookseller] is used for those early ESTC records where not all of the names are transcribed from the imprint.

England

Aylesbury	Dagnell, Matthias	1720	1725	bookseller	3
Banbury	Soden, Robert	1706	1706	bookseller	1
Banbury	Thorp, George	1702	1711	bookseller	8
Barkhamstead	Aldridge, N.	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Bath	Hammond, Henry	1702	1722	bookseller	21
Bath	Leake, J.	1721	1725	bookseller	14
Bath?	[unnamed printer]	1705	1723	printer	3
Bedford	Emery, Thomas	1703	1703	bookseller	1
Bedford	Weale, J.	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Berwick?	[unnamed printer]	1710	1710	printer	1
Bicester	[unlisted bookseller]	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Bicester	Stephens, Paul	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Birmingham	Buckley, Andrew	1717	1717	bookseller	1
Birmingham	Butler, H.	1719	1720	printer	3
Birmingham	Johnson, Andrew	1702	1702	bookseller	1
Birmingham	Osborne, J.	1716	1716	bookseller	1
Birmingham	sold at	1706	1717	bookseller	1
Birmingham	Unwin, Matthew	1716	1717	printer/bookseller	6
Birmingham?	[unnamed printer]	1711	1711	printer	1
Bishop's Castle	Wollaston, John	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Boston	Barton, George	1710	1710	bookseller	1
Boston	Barton, Gervase	1701	1701	bookseller	1
Boston	Buttolph, N.	1707	1707	bookseller	1
Boston	Phillips, S.	1707	1707	bookseller	1
Boston	Wilson, Henry	1719	1721	bookseller	3
Boston?	[unnamed printer]	1721	1721	printer	1
Bridgwater	Davis, Robert	1712	1716	bookseller	2
Bristol	[unnamed booksellers]	1706	1706	bookseller	3
Bristol	[unnamed printer]	1709	1725	printer	10
Bristol	Bonny, Charles	1722	1722	printer	1
Bristol	Bonny, William.	1701	1715	printer/bookseller	40
Bristol	Corsely, William	1721	1722	bookseller	6
Bristol	Farley, Samuel	1713	1723	printer	15
Bristol	Farley, Samuel & Co.	1716	1716	bookseller	1
Bristol	Ferryman, J.	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Bristol	Gravett, Richard	1701	1719	bookseller	6
Bristol	Greep, Henry	1715	1721	printer	4
Bristol	Harris ,Vavasour	1702	1707	bookseller	5
Bristol	Legg, Herbert	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Bristol	Legg, Thomas	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Bristol	Lewis, George	1703	1703	bookseller	1
Bristol	Penn, Christian	1724	1724	printer	1
Bristol	Penn, E.	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Bristol	Penn, Joseph	1709	1724	printer/bookseller	35
Bristol	Wall, Frances	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Bristol	Wall, Thomas	1701	1701	bookseller	2
Bristol	Whithead, Thomas	1709	1709	bookseller	1
Bristol	Wilson, J.	1725	1725	bookseller	2
Bristol?	[unnamed printer]	1711	1716	printer	5
Bromsgrove	Halford, John	1708	1708	bookseller	1
Bunny	Wainwright, Mr	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Bury St Edmunds	[unnamed printer]	1717	1722	printer	3
Bury St Edmunds	Bailey, Thomas	1717	1720	printer/bookseller	7
Bury StEdmunds	Bailey, Thos. & Thompson, Wm.	1720	1725	printer	6
Bury StEdmunds	Bellamy, Mrs	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Bury StEdmunds	Chamberlain, John	1701	1702	bookseller	2
Bury StEdmunds	Thompson, William	1717	1725	bookseller	4
Bury StEdmunds	Thompson, Wm. & Bailey, Thos.	1719	1720	bookseller	4
Bury StEdmunds	Watson, Ralph	1702	1710	bookseller	5
Bury StEdmunds	Wood, Mrs	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Cambridge	[unlisted bookseller]	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Cambridge	[unnamed printer]	1702	1725	printer	73
Cambridge	Chapman, Robert	1711	1711	bookseller	1
Cambridge	Crownfield, Cornelius	1702	1725	bookseller	83
Cambridge	Dawson, Thomas	1706	1706	bookseller	1
Cambridge	Dickenson, William	1710	1710	bookseller	1
Cambridge	Frid., Jo.	1721	1721	printer	1
Cambridge	Hall, Edward	1701	1702	bookseller	2
Cambridge	Hayes, John	1701	1706	printer	46
Cambridge	Jeffery, Edmund	1701	1717	bookseller	59
Cambridge	Owen, John	1703	1707	bookseller	3
Cambridge	Peachey, William	1720	1720	bookseller	2
Cambridge	Simpson, Samuel	1702	1702	bookseller	1
Cambridge	Smith, W.	1711	1711	bookseller	1
Cambridge	Thurlbourn, Richard	1702	1716	bookseller	13
Cambridge	Thurlbourn, William	1723	1725	bookseller	9
Cambridge	University Press	1701	1725	printer	174
Cambridge	Webster, Thomas	1701	1713	bookseller	7
Cambridge	Wilde, A.	1722	1722	printer	1
Cambridge?	[unnamed printer]	1701	1724	printer	22
Canterbury	[unnamed printer]	1718	1720	printer	3
Canterbury	Abree, J.	1718	1724	printer	8
Canterbury	Aylett, W.	1722	1722	printer	1
Canterbury	Burges, E.	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Canterbury	Fenner, Enoch	1716	1716	bookseller	1
Canterbury	James, T.	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Canterbury?	[unnamed printer]	1720	1720	printer	1
Canterbury?	Hunter, W.	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Canterbury?	Palmer, S.	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Carlisle?	[unnamed printer]	1716	1718	printer	2
Chesham	Dagnell, Stephen	1720	1725	bookseller	4
Chester	[unnamed printer]	1710	1720	printer	4
Chester	Adams, Roger	1724	1724	printer	1
Chester	Cooke, W.	1725	1725	printer	1
Chester	Hodgson, Joseph	1706	1717	bookseller	7
Chester	Holland, James	1714	1718	bookseller	4
Chester	Ince, E	1712	1717	printer	11
Chester	Minshall, Randall	1710	1712	bookseller	5
Chester	Page, H.	1711	1711	bookseller	1
Chester	Page, Mrs	1716	1716	bookseller	1
Chester	Page, R.	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Chester	William Cooke	1718	1725	printer	12
Chester?	[unnamed printer]	1711	1720	printer	3
Chesterfield	Bradley, J.	1714	1725	bookseller	3
Chesterfield	Gunter, S.	1722	1725	bookseller	2
Chichester	[unnamed printer]	1705	1705	printer	1
Chichester	Webb, William	1712	1714	bookseller	2
Chichester?	[unnamed printer]	1707	1716	printer	2
Chippenham	Warne, Roger	1707	1722	bookseller	10
Circencester	Ballinger, J.	1725	1725	bookseller	2
Colchester	Blithe, Mr	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Colchester?	[unnamed printer]	1702	1702	printer	1
Coventry	[unlisted bookseller]	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Coventry	[unnamed booksellers]	1706	1706	bookseller	1
Coventry	[unnamed printer]	1721	1721	printer	1
Coventry	Davis, S.	1721	1723	printer	2
Coventry	Hart, T.	1702	1702	bookseller	1
Coventry	Hurt, Thomas	1710	1723	bookseller	5
Coventry	Ratten, George	1701	1701	bookseller	2
Coventry	Ratten, William	1716	1723	bookseller	3
Crediton	Hooker, Samuel	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Croydon	Budgen, Thomas	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Croydon	Glover, William	1704	1704	bookseller	1
Croydon	Lane, N.	1708	1710	bookseller	2
Daventry	Smith, J.	1719	1719	bookseller	2
Deptford	Mattison, H.	1719	1719	bookseller	1
Derby	[unnamed booksellers]	1714	1719	bookseller	2
Derby	[unnamed printer]	1715	1719	printer	2
Derby	Allestree, Henry	1714	1725	bookseller	10
Derby	Cantrell, William	1718	1725	bookseller	6
Derby	Hodges, John	1708	1716	bookseller	7
Derby	Hodgkinson, S.	1725	1725	printer/bookseller	2
Derby	Nisbett, Henry	1704	1704	bookseller	1
Derby	Roe, Jer	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Devizes	Godby, J	1725	1725	bookseller	2
Dorchester	Gaylard, Robert	1709	1713	bookseller	2
Durham	[unnamed booksellers]	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Durham	Freeman, William	1709	1717	bookseller	4
Durham	Waghorn, Mr	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Ely	East, Gotobed	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Eton	Bartlet, Thomas	1710	1710	bookseller	2
Eton	Slatter, John	1703	1721	bookseller	3
Exeter	[unnamed booksellers]	1707	1725	bookseller	22
Exeter	[unnamed printer]	1703	1719	printer	11
Exeter	Bishop, George	1717	1720	printer	17
Exeter	Bishop, M.	1717	1717	bookseller	3
Exeter	Bishop, Philip	1701	1716	printer/bookseller	40
Exeter	Bliss, Joseph	1707	1720	bookseller	48
Exeter	Brice, Andrew	1717	1725	printer/bookseller	28
Exeter	Butter, T.	1703	1703	bookseller	1
Exeter	Farley, Samuel	1701	1715	printer	59
Exeter	March, John	1711	1725	bookseller	22
Exeter	Score, Edward	1704	1721	bookseller	9
Exeter	Thorn, Nathaniel	1717	1723	bookseller	8
Exeter	White, Henry	1714	1714	bookseller	2
Exeter	Yeo & Bishop	1703	1703	bookseller	1
Exeter	Yeo, Charles	1701	1707	bookseller	6
Exeter	Yeo, M. & Philip	1708	1710	bookseller	3
Exeter	Yeo, Philip	1708	1721	bookseller	19
Exeter?	[unnamed printer]	1701	1719	printer	4
Gainsborough	Carlton, Oswald	1718	1724	bookseller	2
Gainsborough	Lowe, John	1724	1724	bookseller	1
Gloucester	[unnamed booksellers]	1724	1724	bookseller	1
Gloucester	Cobb, T.	1713	1713	printer	1
Gloucester	Harris, G.	1702	1715	bookseller	3
Gloucester	Palmer, John	1713	1723	bookseller	4
Gloucester	Raikes, Robert	1725	1725	printer	3
Gloucester	Raikes, Robert & Co.	1725	1725	printer	2
Gloucester	Raikes, Robert & Dicey, W.	1723	1723	printer	1
Gloucester?	[unnamed printer]	1705	1718	printer	8
Gloucesteshire	men who carry the news	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Gosport	[unnamed printer]	1722	1722	printer	1
Gosport	Phillpot, J.	1710	1711	pr
Greenwich?	[unnamed printer]	1705	1705	printer	1
Guildford?	[unnamed printer]	1721	1721	printer	1
Haddington?	[unnamed printer]	1719	1724	printer	6
Halifax	Bentley, William	1708	1708	bookseller	1
Halifax	Dyson, William	1724	1724	bookseller	5
Hammersmith	[unnamed printer]	1712	1712	printer	1
Harborough	Ratten, Caleb	1708	1723	bookseller	8
Harwich	Jefferies, Mr	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Hereford	[unnamed booksellers]	1724	1724	bookseller	1
Hereford	Hunt, James	1717	1725	bookseller	2
Hereford	Hunt, John & James	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Hereford	Parks, William	1720	1720	printer	1
Hereford	Wilde, James	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Hereford	Wilde, T.	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Hereford?	[unnamed printer]	1718	1720	printer	2
Hinckley	Marten, Simon	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Holt	Harding, Grace	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Horsham	Browne, W.	1712	1712	bookseller	1
Huddersfield	Dyson, William	1724	1724	bookseller	2
Hull	Ryles, Thomas	1701	1724	bookseller	18
Hull?	[unnamed printer]	1724	1725	printer	2
Ipswich	Bagnall, John	1720	1723	printer	4
Ipswich	Truelove, Henry	1707	1713	bookseller	2
Knutsford	Leach, Mr	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Lancaster?	Unnamed printer	1715	1715	printer	1
Leeds	Hirst, John	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Leeds	Penrose, John	1712	1712	bookseller	1
Leeds	Richardson, John	1704	1704	bookseller	1
Leeds	Swale, John	1717	1718	bookseller	5
Leeds	Whitworth, John	1701	1701	bookseller	1
Leeds?	[unnamed printer]	1710	1716	printer	1
Leicester	Hartshorn, Mrs.	1719	1719	bookseller	1
Leicester	Marten, Simon	1705	1720	bookseller	7
Leicester	Ward, John	1708	1723	bookseller	9
Leicester?	[unnamed printer]	1715	1715	printer	1
Leighton	Dagnell, Matthias	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Lewes?	Unnamed printer	1710	1710	printer	1
Lichfield	Johnson, Michael	1710	1721	bookseller	3
Lichfield	sold at	1706	1706	bookseller	1
Lincoln	[unnamed printer]	1713	1713	printer	1
Lincoln	Knight, John	1709	1718	bookseller	5
Lincoln	Wood, Mr.	1724	1724	bookseller	1
Lincoln?	[unnamed printer]	1717	1717	printer	1
Liverpool	[unnamed booksellers]	1719	1719	bookseller	1
Liverpool	[unnamed printer]	1713	1713	printer	1
Liverpool	Birchal, Daniel Junr.	1724	1724	printer	1
Liverpool	Birchall, Daniel	1712	1722	bookseller	8
Liverpool	Cliff, Nat	1712	1712	bookseller	1
Liverpool	Eaton, A.	1716	1716	bookseller	1
Liverpool	Eaton, Joseph	1710	1710	bookseller	2
Liverpool	Jackson, D.	1712	1712	bookseller	1
Liverpool	Terry, Samuel	1712	1720	printer	8
Loughborough	Marten, Simon	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Louth	Boys, Dickenson	1701	1718	bookseller	2
Ludlow	Parks, William	1720	1720	printer	1
Ludlow	Robinson, Edward	1710	1710	bookseller	2
Lynn	[unnamed printer]	1701	1717	printer	2
Lynn	Harwick, Charles	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Lynn	Harwick, Richard	1716	1716	bookseller	1
Macclesfield	Rathbone, Josiah	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Maidstone	[unnamed printer]	1710	1710	printer	1
Maidstone	Wilson, Robert	1704	1706	bookseller	2
Manchester	Adams, Roger	1719	1724	printer/bookseller	2
Manchester	Clayton, William	1711	1724	bookseller	4
Manchester	Whitworth, John	1711	1725	bookseller	9
Mansfield	Dixon, J.	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Marlborough	Buckeridge John	1704	1704	bookseller	1
Midhurst	Jacques, Joseph	1712	1712	bookseller	1
Milton-Ernis	Robinson, U.	1719	1719	printer	1
Monmouth	Crofts, J.	1725	1725	bookseller	2
Nantwich	Stone, Amy	1710	1710	bookseller	1
Newark	Farnworth, B.	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Newbury	Simmons, Church	1706	1715	bookseller	3
Newcastle	[unnamed booksellers]	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Newcastle	[unnamed printer]	1713	1723	printer	6
Newcastle	Akinhead, R.	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Newcastle	Brison, M.	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Newcastle	Button, Joseph	1709	1722	printer/bookseller	12
Newcastle	Fieldhouse, William	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Newcastle	Marchbank, Robert	1720	1720	bookseller	4
Newcastle	Pearson, Robert	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Newcastle	Randell, Richard	1701	1713	bookseller	3
Newcastle	Shaw, Mr.	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Newcastle	the old woman's cat	1708	1708	bookseller	1
Newcastle	White, John	1708	1725	printer/bookseller	77
Newcastle?	[unnamed printer]	1709	1725	printer	11
Newport Pagnell	Timbs, Mary	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Northampton	[unnamed printer]	1720	1722	printer	2
Northampton	Burnham Mr.	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Northampton	Dicey, William	1720	1725	printer	7
Northampton	Dicey, William & Co.	1724	1724	printer	1
Northampton	Fowler, Mr	1723	1723	bookseller	2
Northampton	printing offices	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Northampton	Raikes, Robert & Dicey, W.	1720	1725	printer	12
Northampton?	[unnamed printer]	1721	1721	printer	1
Norwich	[unnamed booksellers]	1702	1724	bookseller	7
Norwich	[unnamed printer]	1702	1724	printer	34
Norwich	administrator of E. Burges	1708	1710	printer	3
Norwich	Burges, Elizabeth	1706	1708	printer	5
Norwich	Burges, Francis	1701	1706	bookseller	28
Norwich	Chase, William	1710	1725	printer	25
Norwich	Collins, Freeman	1710	1713	printer	6
Norwich	Collins, H.	1715	1716	printer	3
Norwich	Collins, J.	1713	1713	printer	1
Norwich	Collins, Susanna	1713	1713	printer	3
Norwich	Cross-grove, Henry	1706	1725	printer	48
Norwich	Crotch, Thomas	1708	1708	bookseller	1
Norwich	Giles, Edward	1704	1704	bookseller	2
Norwich	Goddard Thomas	1701	1721	printer/bookseller	28
Norwich	Kirkpatrick, Thomas	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Norwich	Lyon, Benjamin	1718	1718	printer	1
Norwich	Oliver, Frances	1704	1722	bookseller	18
Norwich	Oliver, Samuel	1702	1702	bookseller	1
Norwich	Reeve, Little	1709	1709	bookseller	1
Norwich	Selfe, Samuel	1704	1704	bookseller	1
Norwich?	[unnamed printer]	1701	1720	printer	7
Nottingham	[unnamed booksellers]	1717	1719	bookseller	2
Nottingham	[unnamed printer]	1715	1724	printer	8
Nottingham	Ayscough, Anne	1720	1725	printer/bookseller	8
Nottingham	Ayscough, William	1710	1720	printer/bookseller	27
Nottingham	Cantrell, H.	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Nottingham	Clay, J.	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Nottingham	Collyer, John	1711	1725	printer/bookseller	49
Nottingham	Sulley, Gervase	1703	1703	bookseller	1
Nottingham	Ward, S.	1714	1714	bookseller	1
Nottingham	Ward, William	1709	1723	bookseller	22
Nottingham?	[unnamed printer]	1724	1724	printer	3
Ormskirk	Grice, William	1712	1712	bookseller	1
Ormskirk	Stuart, James	1719	1719	bookseller	1
Oxford	[unlisted bookseller]	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Oxford	[unnamed booksellers]	1712	1723	bookseller	5
Oxford	[unnamed printer]	1701	1725	printer	9
Oxford	Barker, B	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Oxford	Baskett, John	1715	1725	printer	41
Oxford	Clements, Henry	1701	1721	bookseller	45
Oxford	Clements, Richard	1723	1725	bookseller	9
Oxford	Combes, Charles	1723	1723	bookseller	3
Oxford	Crosley, John	1701	1704	bookseller	3
Oxford	Fletcher, Stephen	1705	1725	bookseller	46
Oxford	Good, James	1701	1701	bookseller	1
Oxford	Howell, Mary	1701	1704	bookseller	2
Oxford	Kiblewhite, Stephen	1715	1724	bookseller	6
Oxford	Lancaster, William	1709	1709	printer	1
Oxford	Lichfield, Leonard	1701	1725	printer	165
Oxford	Owen, John	1702	1702	bookseller	1
Oxford	Peisley, Anthony	1702	1725	bookseller	73
Oxford	Royce, William	1712	1725	bookseller	3
Oxford	Stephens, John	1704	1709	bookseller	46
Oxford	University Press	1701	1725	printer	430
Oxford	Wells, William	1720	1725	bookseller	6
Oxford	West, George	1702	1705	bookseller	9
Oxford	Whistler, Edward	1710	1725	bookseller	14
Oxford	Wilmot, John	1703	1714	bookseller	3
Oxford	Wilmot, John & Samuel	1710	1717	bookseller	5
Oxford	Wilmot, Samuel	1716	1725	bookseller	30
Oxford	University Press - Roger Norton	1704	1704	printer	1
Oxford?	[unnamed printer]	1701	1725	printer	30
Oxford?	Whistler, Edward	1714	1714	bookseller	1
Pakenhill	Went, S.	1714	1714	bookseller	1
Penrith	Corney, Thomas	1724	1724	bookseller	4
Peterborough	Boucher, J.	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Peterborough	Bouchier, G.	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Portsmouth	Everden, George	1722	1725	bookseller	3
Portsmouth	Grove, Hugh	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Portsmouth	Wilkinson, James	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Preston	Prescot, Mrs	1712	1712	bookseller	1]
Preston	Prescot, W.	1710	1710	bookseller	1
Preston?	[unnamed printer]	1715	1715	printer	1
Reading	[unnamed printer]	1723	1723	printer	1
Reading	Flood, Frances	1723	1723	bookseller	2
Reading	Kinnier, David	1723	1725	printer	3
Reading	Shirley, Benjamin	1713	1721	bookseller	4
Reading	Ward, Nathaniel	1717	1725	bookseller	6
Reading	Wesley, Timothy	1715	1721	bookseller	3
Ripon	Austin, Richard	1714	1714	bookseller	1
Rochdale	Scolfield, Robert	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Romford	Workman, Mrs	1701	1701	bookseller	1
Ross	Rogers, J.	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Salisbury	Courtney, John	1715	1715	bookseller	2
Salisbury	Easton, Edward	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Salisbury	Farley, Samuel	1715	1715	printer/bookseller	2
Salisbury	Pope, Sylv	1715	1721	bookseller	2
Salisbury?	[unnamed printer]	1701	1722	printer	3
Sandwich	Silver, Jacob	1721	1722	bookseller	3
Sheffield	Simmons, Nevill	1702	1709	bookseller	7
Sheffield	Turner, Joseph	1701	1722	bookseller	4
Sherbourne	Cooke, John	1713	1722	bookseller	5
Sherbourne	Miller, John	1702	1710	bookseller	7
Shrewsbury	[unnamed booksellers]	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Shrewsbury	[unnamed printer]	1703	1725	printer	9
Shrewsbury	Davies, William	1717	1717	bookseller	1
Shrewsbury	Durston, Thomas	1711	1725	printer	10
Shrewsbury	Evans, Theophilus	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Shrewsbury	Gittins, Thomas	1706	1720	bookseller	4
Shrewsbury	James, T.	1710	1710	printer	1
Shrewsbury	Jones, David	1717	1717	bookseller	1
Shrewsbury	Jones, Thomas	1704	1711	printer	10
Shrewsbury	Lewis, D.	1710	1714	printer	3
Shrewsbury	Phillips, John	1703	1715	bookseller	2
Shrewsbury	Prys, Stafford	1711	1711	printer	1
Shrewsbury	Rhydderch, John	1716	1723	printer	9
Shrewsbury	Risiart, Sion	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Shrewsbury	Rogers, John	1706	1724	bookseller	20
Shrewsbury	Samuel, Christmas	1714	1717	bookseller	2
Shrewsbury	Thomas, Lewis	1714	1714	bookseller	1
Shrewsbury	Thomas, Nicholas	1714	1714	bookseller	1
Shrewsbury?	[unnamed printer]	1709	1720	printer	4
Shrewsbury?	S., J.	1714	1714	printer	1
Skipton	Hodgson, Mr.	1724	1724	bookseller	1
Southwark	Glover, John	1704	1704	bookseller	1
St Albans	Hunt, William	1709	1709	bookseller	1
St Albans	Thorpe, Anthony	1720	1720	bookseller	2
St Ives	Brady, Chururd	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Stafford	Norman, Henry	1712	1712	bookseller	1
Stafford	Southall Richard	1722	1724	bookseller	2
Stafford	Walthoe, E.	1711	1711	bookseller	1
Stafford	Walthoe, John	1712	1715	bookseller	16
Stamford	[unnamed printer]	1707	1725	printer	11
Stamford	Bailey, Thomas	1720	1720	bookseller	2
Stamford	Palmer, Edmund	1702	1713	bookseller	4
Stamford	Thompson, William	1725	1725	bookseller	2
Stamford	Thompson, William & Bailey, T	1717	1720	printer	9
Stamford?	[unnamed printer]	1712	1720	printer	2
Stockport	Mathewton, Thomas	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Stony Stratford	Timbs, John	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Stroud	Bond, W.	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Tamworth	sold at	1706	1706	bookseller	1
Taunton	Chaulkin, Henry	1702	1708	bookseller	5
Taunton	Chaulkin, Mrs	1710	1710	bookseller	2
Taunton	Norris, Mr.	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Taunton	Norris, W.	1718	1718	printer	2
Thornbury	Harvest, George	1711	1711	bookseller	1
Tiverton	Burton, Humphrey	1701	1701	bookseller	2
Tiverton	Dyer, Jo	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Tiverton	Dyer, Samuel	1713	1716	bookseller	2
Tiverton	Shutt, William	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Tring	Williams, Thomas	1720	1720	bookseller	2
Tunbridge Wells	[unnamed printer]	1705	1705	printer	1
Tunbridge Wells	Curll, Edmund	1712	1713	bookseller	2
Uppingham	Cook, Thomas	1714	1714	bookseller	1
Wakefield	Barber, Abraham	1711	1715	bookseller	4
Wakefield	Richardson, John	1704	1704	bookseller	1
Wakefield	Swale, John	1717	1717	bookseller	3
Wapping	Harrison, Edward	1703	1703	bookseller	1
Warrington	Eyres, Henry	1704	1712	bookseller	2
Wells	Brown, Mr	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Winchester	Clark, Mrs	1710	1710	bookseller	1
Wisbech	Gibson, P.	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Wolverhampton?	[unnamed printer]	1724	1724	printer	3
Woodburne	Franksat, Mr	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Worcester	[unnamed booksellers]	1724	1724	bookseller	1
Worcester	Bryan, S.	1709	1710	printer	3
Worcester	Butler, John	1704	1704	bookseller	1
Worcester	Ferryman, J.	1720	1720	bookseller	1
Worcester	Mountfort, John	1707	1714	bookseller	5
Worcester	Wolley, Edward	1708	1708	bookseller	1
Worcester	Wolley, William	1725	1725	bookseller	2
Worcester?	[unnamed printer]	1717	1717	printer	1
Wotton-Underedge	Exell, Caleb	1711	1711	bookseller	1
Wotton-Underedge	Homan, M.	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Yarmouth	Peartree, Owen	1704	1706	bookseller	3
York	[unnamed printer]	1703	1713	printer	6
York	Baxter, Thomas	1702	1706	bookseller	4
York	Bourne, Charles	1716	1723	printer	9
York	Francklin, Richard	1724	1724	bookseller	1
York	Gent, Thomas	1724	1725	printer	3
York	Hammond, Thomas jnr	1714	1723	bookseller	14
York	Hildyard, Francis	1703	1725	bookseller	39
York	Jackson, John	1704	1707	printer	4
York	Jeeb, Robert	1710	1721	bookseller	5
York	Lucas, Mrs	1714	1714	bookseller	2
York	Mancklin, Richard	1725	1725	bookseller	1
York	Sagg, William	1717	1722	bookseller	7
York	White, Grace	1716	1716	printer	12
York	White, John	1701	1725	printer	26

Ireland

Belfast	[unnamed printer]	1714	1714	printer	1
Belfast	[unnamed printer]	1721	1722	printer	5
Belfast	Blow, James	1714	1725	printer/bookseller	34
Belfast	Gardner, Robert	1713	1725	printer	18
Belfast	Neill, Patrick	1703	1703	printer	2
Belfast?	[unnamed printer]	1713	1724	printer	8
Cork	[unnamed printer]	1722	1722	printer	1
Cork	Bennett , George	1716	1723	bookseller	10
Cork	Bennett, Thomas	1721	1721	bookseller	1
Cork	Redwood, John	1716	1723	bookseller	13
Cork	Terry, Samuel	1720	1721	printer	6
Cork	Welsh, Andrew	1722	1725	printer/bookseller	6
Cork	Welsh, Andrew & Cotton, Thomas	1716	1716	printer	1
Limerick	Bizen, L. alias Tabb	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Limerick	Branagan, Thomas	1716	1716	printer	1
Limerick	Terry, Samuel	1722	1725	printer	6
Limerick?	[unnamed printer]	1720	1720	printer	1
Newry	Moffat, R.	1725	1725	printer	1
Waterford?	[unnamed printer]	1721	1721	printer	1

Scotland

Aberdeen	[unnamed booksellers] of	1712	1724	bookseller	4
Aberdeen	[unnamed printer]	1707	1717	printer	2
Aberdeen	Farquhar, Mr	1723	1723	bookseller	1
Aberdeen	Forbes, John	1701	1702	printer	2
Aberdeen	Forbes, successors of John	1704	1714	printer/bookseller	10
Aberdeen	Nicol, James	1711	1724	printer	15
Aberdeen?	[unnamed printer]	1703	1720	printer	6
Dumfermline	[unnamed printer]	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Dumfries	[unnamed booksellers] of	1714	1725	bookseller	2
Dumfries	[unnamed printer]	1719	1719	printer	2
Dumfries	Rae, Robert	1715	1718	printer	15
Dumfries?	[unnamed printer]	1715	1716	printer	2
Glasgow	[unnamed booksellers]	1712	1725	bookseller	22
Glasgow	[unnamed printer]	1701	1725	printer	51
Glasgow	Brown, Hugh	1712	1720	printer/bookseller	17
Glasgow	Brown, James & John & Mrs	1722	1724	bookseller	3
Glasgow	Brown, Mrs & James	1717	1717	bookseller	1
Glasgow	Carmichael, Alexander	1722	1725	printer/bookseller	2
Glasgow	Crawford, Thomas	1720	1721	printer/bookseller	5
Glasgow	Dickie, William	1717	1717	bookseller	1
Glasgow	Duncan, James	1720	1725	printer/bookseller	18
Glasgow	Duncan, James and William	1718	1720	printer	5
Glasgow	Duncan, William	1721	1725	printer/bookseller	15
Glasgow	Govan, Donald	1715	1719	printer	4
Glasgow	Luke, Henry	1715	1715	bookseller	3
Glasgow	Mathie, Alexander	1717	1718	bookseller	2
Glasgow	McEuen & co, James	1721	1721	bookseller	2
Glasgow	McEuen, James	1721	1721	bookseller	2
Glasgow	Millar, Alex	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Glasgow	Robertson, John	1717	1719	bookseller	2
Glasgow	Sanders, Robert	1701	1725	printer/bookseller	104
Glasgow	Simson, Donald	1715	1715	printer	1
Glasgow	Stewart, James	1702	1711	bookseller	1
Glasgow	Thomson, James	1724	1724	bookseller	2
Glasgow	Wales, Andrew	1715	1715	bookseller	1
Glasgow	Watson, James	1701	1701	printer/bookseller	2
Glasgow	Wilson, John	1711	1718	bookseller	2
Glasgow?	[unnamed printer]	1701	1725	printer	37
Hamilton	Hamilton, Robert	1713	1713	bookseller	1
Inverness	[unnamed booksellers]	1714	1725	bookseller	2
Jedburgh	Ormiston, James	1720	1723	bookseller	3
Kelso	[unnamed booksellers]	1715	1725	bookseller	2
Kelso?	[unnamed printer]	1715	1715	printer	1
Kilmarnock	[unnamed booksellers]	1714	1725	bookseller	2
Kilmarnock	Duncan, Bailie	1718	1718	bookseller	1
Kirkaldy	[unnamed booksellers]	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Kirkbride	Rae, Robert	1711	1713	printer	3
Perth	[unnamed printer]	1705	1715	printer	2
Perth	Freebairn, Robert	1715	1716	printer	20
Perth?	[unnamed printer]	1715	1715	printer	2
Stirling	[unnamed booksellers]	1722	1725	bookseller	2
Stirling	Henshaw, John	1719	1719	bookseller	1
Stirling?	[unnamed printer]	1715	1715	printer	2
Stirling?	[unnamed printer]	1715	1715	printer	1

Wales

Abergavenny	Rogers, Sam	1708	1709	bookseller	2
Caerlleon	Minshul, R.	1708	1701	bookseller	1
Cardiff	Lewis, Thomas	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Cardiff	Oakey, Mr.	1725	1725	bookseller	1
Carmarthen	Harri, Joan	1725	1725	printer	1
Carmarthen	Harri, Miles	1725	1725	printer	1
Carmarthen	Philips, Joan	1725	1725	printer	1
Carmarthen	Thomas, Nicholas	1725	1725	printer	1
Trefedyn	Carter, Isaac	1722	1722	printer	1
Trefedyn	Evans, Dafydd	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Trefedyn	Ll, J.	1722	1722	bookseller	1
Trefedyn	T., A.	1722	1722	bookseller	1

APPENDIX

The downloaded imprints were processed in the following ways:

1. Removal of unwanted characters

1. The files were loaded into a word processor and all copyright notices were stripped out using the search and replace techniques (replacing the relevant characters with nothing).

2. Before further processing it is necessary to understand the purpose of the following special characters within any word processed file, and how they may be identified and either removed or replaced:
Carriage Return characters (¶)
Tab characters (®)
White spaces
It is also frequently helpful to display all the characters, rather than just those which would be sent to a printer.

3. All the original Carriage Return characters were removed using search and replace techniques described in 1. (in Microsoft applications these are identified using the character combination ^p in the search box). Likewise, multiple spaces were replaced by a single space (this is done by entering two or more spaces in the search box and one in the replace box - using the space bar).

4. The field label ‘ESTC RECORD NUMBER:’ was then replaced with a single carriage return, and that for the ‘IMPRINT:’ with a TAB character (in Microsoft applications these are inserted using the character combination ^t). This has the effect of creating two columns, the first containing ESTC Numbers and the second the imprint.)

5. The file in this state was then transferred to a spreadsheet so that the ESTC Numbers appear in Column A and the text of the Imprint in Column B.

2. The De-duplication of entries

1. he file was sorted in the spreadsheet according to the ESTC number.

2. A second copy of the column of sorted ESTC numbers was made and pasted into a word processor.

3. The prefixes ‘t’, ‘n’, or ‘w’ were replaced with the digits ‘0’, ‘1’, or ‘2’ respectively and the resulting ‘true’ numbers were then pasted back into Column C of the spreadsheet.

4. Duplicate entries are identified and removed using a formula copied into each spreadsheet cell of Column D. This formula compares each entry in Column C with the one immediately prior to it, using the ‘IF’ function of the spreadsheet. For example, using Microsoft Works, the following formula is entered =IF(C1=C2,true(),false()) is entered into Cell D2, and then copied into each succeeding cell using the ‘Fill Down’ facility. If the two numbers being compared are the same, the function would return the value 1, in Column D, and otherwise would return 0.

5. By re-sorting the spreadsheet according to Column D, all the duplicate entries could be grouped together and deleted. Columns C and D could then be deleted, leaving the original records without any duplicate entries.

3. Processing the text of the imprint

1. A second copy of the column containing the text of the imprints was made and pasted into a word processor.

2. The year of publication, which almost always occurs at the end of an imprint, is regularised, by the removal of any square brackets (e.g. by replacing the character combination <space>[17 with the character combination <space>17 and the characters ]<carriage return> with <carriage return>. Any question marks after dates are similarly deleted.

3. Unwanted phrases such as “printed in the year” were stripped out using search and replace techniques.

4. All regularly occurring formulaic phrases such as “printed by” “printed for” “printed and sold by” are replaced with appropriate codes - e.g. pb, pf, pbsb etc. Care must be taken with the interpretation of the punctuation, as ‘Norwich printed, and sold by’ may well have a quite different meaning to ‘Norwich printed and sold by’.

5. All remaining spaces in the text are replaced by a Tab character and the file is then pasted back into the original spreadsheet.

6. The effect of the above changes is to create a large spreadsheet, with column A containing the ESTC number, Column B the complete imprint (retained for reference purposes) and Column C onwards containing all the words and codes from the imprints.

7. Using the ‘sort’, ‘cut’, ‘copy’ and ‘clear’ functions of the spreadsheet, the text is then lined up so that all places of printing, printers surnames, distributors names, dates, etc etc. appear in the same column. In instances of “printed and sold by” or “printed for and sold by” where it is clear that one tradesman is fulfilling two functions, are copied so that the names appear in both the relevant columns.

8. Where there are a number of names acting in the same capacity appearing in a single imprint, then dummy entries are created by copying only the ESTC number, the date, and the second (or subsequent) name and place into a new row, and then deleting them from the original entry.

9. Once this process has been completed the forms of names can be standardised by using the ‘column fill’ facility of the spreadsheet.

10. The names of individuals can be converted into the required form by moving the column containing the first names so that it comes after that containing the surname, then cutting both of these columns and pasting them into a word processor. In the word processor the two columns are separated by a Tab character which can then be replaced by a comma followed by a space. The list of names is then pasted back into the spreadsheet, and the second (now empty) column is deleted. Thus becomes .

Table 2 shows a part of the spreadsheet in this intermediate state. For reasons of space, the full text of the imprint cannot be shows, although it is preserved in each record for reference purposes. In the above example, ESTC t161298 was sold in a number of towns, hence the dummy entries.

4. Construction of the database

It would be feasible to store all the required information for the database of imprints in a computer spreadsheet, however purpose-built database software will provide advantages in terms of reporting. The instructions below indicate how the information could be transferred into a simple ‘flat-file’ database - such as Microsoft Works, because it is a very simple task to ‘cut and paste’ data between a spreadsheet and a database. However, due to the nature of the information contained in eighteenth century imprints, with a number of tradesmen fulfilling the same function in different towns, there would be advantages to using a more sophisticated relational database such as Microsoft Access.In this case there would be no need for the dummy entries to cope with repeating fields.

1. A reference copy of the spreadsheet is preserved.

2. The spreadsheet is sorted into order by place of printing and the columns containing the full imprint and any booksellers names and addresses are deleted.

3. A new column was created into which the code ‘pr’ is added to each entry using the ‘fill down’ facility.

4. The new database format is prepared with fields to represent ESTC No., Name, Place, Date, Capacity.

5. The entries from the spreadsheet and are then copied and pasted into the database.

6. The reference copy of the spreadsheet is then re-opened and re-sorted so that all ‘printed for’ entries appear at the top. All records which do not have a name in the ‘Printed For’ field are then deleted. The columns containing Imprint, Printed By and Sold By are deleted, and a new column containing the code ‘pf’ is added to the remaining entries. These are then copied into the database.

7. A similar procedure is then used to isolate and copy the ‘Sold by’ entries. The ensuing database was then saved.

Table 3 - shows the form in which the records were transferred from the spreadsheet to the database.

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[1]. Further details of the facilities available and problems encountered using ESTC are given in David Stoker, ‘The Eighteenth-Century Short Title Catalogue on CD-ROM’, in CD-ROM products an evaluative guide, Volume 4, ed. C.J. Armstrong & J.A. Large, (Aldershot: Information Automation and Ashgate, 1993), 28-35.

[2]. H.R. Plomer, A dictionary of printers and booksellers who were at work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, (London: The Bibliographical Society, 1968).