SETTING UP A PRIVATE PRESS IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY NORFOLK

Few eighteenth century English books can have had quite such a prolonged and eventful publishing history as Francis Blomefield's An Essay Towards a Topographical History of Norfolk, and probably no other equivalent work is so well documented. Many of Blomefield's journals, manuscripts and rough notes survive, showing how he went about compiling his narrative, together with some proof sheets and accounts which give an indication of his printing activities. There are also nearly three hundred surviving letters between 1728 and his death in 1752, the majority of which refer to his publishing activities. In the Norfolk Record Office there are two letter books in particular which relate to the period between 1733 and 1737 when Blomefield took the remarkable decision to print and publish his work himself and set up a printing office at his rectory in the village of Fersfield. In the limited space available in this article it is not possible to do more than give the briefest samples from what is a mine of information about the problems which Blomefield had to face during this period.

The author's initial plan was to have his history printed in monthly parts at either Bury St Edmunds or Norwich, but he soon found this to be impracticable. Provincial presses were not equipped with the range of types he needed, as he explained to the Norwich printer William Chase in July 1733:

I have endeavoured to procure a set of Saxon types, but find I can't do it and upon looking over my book find a great number of Greek inscriptions, some Hebrew words, and some gothic so that I must print in London ..... I wish heartily I could have done it with you for I liked your terms and could have been glad to have corrected the press myself, which then I could easily have done.

He was therefore forced to make enquiries among the printers in London although he seems to have been obsessed by the idea that any tradesman in the capital would be liable to cheat him by printing more copies of the work than were ordered and then sell them at a lower price. When approaching the London printer ,James Bettenham for a quotation therefore, he requested a guarantee oft he numbers to be printed. Bettenham refused any other guarantee than his word and went on to tell a story about how the printer Samuel Palmer had carried out just such a fraud on William Wollaston the author of The Religion of Nature:-

I lent the printer my letter .... at a certain price agreed on for the use of it for such a number, .... which he almost doubled, and the author would never have been sensible of had not some of my men been accidentally drinking with his and the number printed was occasionally mentioned...

This reply did nothing to allay Blomefield's suspicions, and together with a very high quotation for the paper given by Bettenham, appears to have caused him to completely rethink his publishing plans.

The earliest references to Blomefield's decision to set up his own press occur in the summer of 1735, but the matter was not settled until the September. He explained his reasons in a letter to Henry Briggs:

By this means I am sure of one, & that is doing justice to my subscribers, it being impossible there should be any imposition upon them by any printer or booksellers have :property in the copy.

At the same time he had appointed a journeyman printer named Nicholas Hussey, who had been working at Bailey's printing office in Bury St Edmunds and who was willing to move his family to Fersfield. Hussey was able to advise on the appropriate alterations that would he needed to accommodate the press and then was sent to London to purchase the requisite materials for its euqipment.

The only reference in the correspondence to the structure in which the press was housed is mention of "the house, yard, chamber, and all are done & make a genteel office". However associated accounts from builders and carpenters suggest that an existing structure such as a barn or outhouse was extended and perhaps also had an additional floor inserted. They also show that Blomefield stuck to the traditional practice of having paper windows in his printing office.

Meanwhile Nicholas Hussey approached a man named Doctor Gavlard "at the White House and Half Moon by the Kings' Bench in Southwark" who appears to have acted as an agent for the supply of all kinds of printing materials and services. Through Gaylard, Hussey bought a second-hand printing press from the Southwark printer William Rayner, for seven pounds, and the former was requested to arrange for it to be dismantled, packed, and sent by carriers' wagon to arrive in Norfolk before Christmas 1735. There were however considerable delays created by Gaylard who was unwilling to send the press until he had received payment, so that it did not finally arrive until 26 January, when Hussey began to install it in the newly converted premises. It was then discovered that some of the furniture and equipment, which was assumed; to be part of the deal, was missing:

... he finds there want the points & their screws and two of the frisquetts, with sheeps foot hammer & ballstocks all which he bought with the press...

By this time Blomefield was simultaneously having trouble with Gavlard over the non-arrival of many of the types he had ordered and so soon afterwards he ceased to have any further dealings with the man and eventually he had to obtain some of this equipment and various pieces of furniture from other sources.

The supply of printing types was to cause Blomefield even more headaches and delays, partly because he was only willing to pay for secondhand materials and partly because he became involved with unscrupulous tradesmen. Nicholas Hussey bought fonts of English roman and italic for the text, and of long primer for footnotes from William Rayner, through the agency of Doctor Gaylard. He also .placed orders for small quantities of a great primer for headings and the various specialised types he required, to be newly cast. The types were not sent, together with the press but were further delayed, and when they arrived they were found to be incomplete (although useable) and they contained a proportion of old and useless pied type to increase their weight:

I shall be obliged to you if you will send me the sorts of the English italick & of the roman in order to perfect that font. We have since found we want commas to it. As to the long primer there is cleared of its lumber 471 i & a half exactly and so imperfect that we know not what to do for want of many things..

Shortly afterwards Blomefield discovered the real reason for the delays and imperfections, was that Gaylard was using them for a job of his own, and so an accusing letter was quickly dispatched.

I thought you had been a man of more honour than to have served anybody thus, when you know that my workman hath stayd for you this three weeks ... I can't think it in the least fair or honest to work a letter after it was sold as I perceive mine hath been ... as I am informed by one that you little think of.

The exotic: types never were supplied by Gaylard and so Blomefield had eventually to reorder them from the typefounder ,Jacob Ilive during the summer of' 1736. Once again there were prolonged frustrations and misunderstandings with Blomefield frequently accusing his supplier with providing imperfect fonts or else charging him for quadrats or type cases which he had never ordered. Eventually in 1737 an exasperated Blomefield once again wrote a letter breaking off all further dealings with the typefounder:

Sir,

I received yours of the twenty 4th of the last month, but am determined to have nothing of any one in your way of letters'till I can come and see them put up with my own eyes & pay for them myself. I am sorry to f ind the Greek I had of you so very deficient of sorts, now I come to use it, there is not a v or lower case n in the whole, nor a capital E..

Whilst equipping his printing office, Blomefield had been giving some thought to the question of paper supplies. James Bettenham had quoted prices of up to 14/6 a ream which was exorbitant. Nicholas Hussey had recommended a printing paper supplied by Thomas Brewer of Ludgate Hill at 8s per ream, but when Blomefield wrote to ask for a discount for bulk purchase this stationer flatly refused to consider any. Blomefield therefore requested Hussey to make enquiries at a paper mill at Thetford owned by Thomas Russell and an agreement was eventually reached in December 1735 afor the supply of a "superfine english crown" at 6s per ream.

Unfortunately Thomas Russell's superfine quality was inferior to most contemporary printing papers and Blomefield's correspondence contains references to criticisms of the quality and colour of the paper, from both his subscribers and booksellers. However shortly after the publication of the first printed part a more serious problem became apparent:

I perceive the paper is very bad of the 1st number, have sent to my paper man since yours, he hath been with me and owns that part of it was sized in a frost which took out the sizing which is the strength of the paper and that is the reason that it cracks in so many places. I had none of it left & the rest I have had since proves well & hath no flaws.

Russell agreed to replace all the faulty paper but this was only a poor recompense to Blomefield who had to suffer the loss of reputation with his subscribers and go to the trouble of reprinting his first part.

Blomefield's correspondence also contains a considerable number of letters concerning the many illustrations in the book, either to or from the subscribers who commissioned them, or else to or from the tradesmen who executed them such as the woodcutter William Pennock or the engraver William Henry Toms. These letters frequently include the haggling overprices, and instances of amendments and revisions made to the copper plates. However, although his relation with Pennock and Toms were often acrimonious and occasionally stormy Blomefield continued to employ these men for several years and so presumably was satisfied with their work. This was not the case with his rather disastrous dealings with a man named Francis Hoffman who practiced both of these trades on a peripatetic basis.

Amidst all of the problems of adapting and equipping his printing ollice, Blomefield was becoming seriously worried about the time tht was being taken to produce his copperplate engravings. Shortly after Christmas 1735 he received an approach from Francis Hoffman, offering to come and work for him of Fersfield where he could both make the original draughts and then carry out the engraving in direct consultation with the author. This offer was repeated in another letter a few days later followed by a recommendation from Doctor Gaylard who was then still in process of supplying Blomefield with his other materials. Hoffman's letters show him to have been a boastful and self-deceiving character, almost to the point o£ instability. and even Gaylard warned that his friend tended "to romance a little in conversation". but he was clearly able to produce work at the standard required. Blomefield could see many advantages in haying such a workman at Ferslield. and so Hoflman was invited to make the journey and arrived just as the various preparations for the press were coming to a head. Within a Fortnight Blomefield had another reason to complain to Doctor Gavlard, this time through a letter written by Nicholas Hussev:

As to Hoflman, he came down and Mr Blomefield payd him a guinea for his journey, found him a house & supplied him with about 30 or forty shillings more. He dud us only a few letters, & agreed for a large parcell of work. & cut( several of the things all which he ran away with, & we know not where he is so hope that you will inform us, as soon as you know he is in London. Mr Blomefield being determined to prosecute him to the utmost.

All these problems took place at a time when Blomefield was closely involved with the preparation o£ his manuscript, the collection of additional material. and all the arrangements for soliciting for subscribers to his work. It is some tribute to his determination that despite all of these setbacks, and an equal number of porblems which he later had with those who distributed and sold his book. he continued to produce his work in parts until his death from smallpox in 1752. By this time he had covered only about a third of the county of.Norfolk together with the city of.Norwich. It was left to other less able hands to. complete and publish the remainder o£ the work.

David Stoker