Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Pepwell, Henry
PEPWELL, HENRY (d. 1540), printer and stationer in London, was born at Birmingham, but the first mention of his name occurs in the colophon of the first book he printed, the ‘Castell of Pleasure,’ which was issued in 1518. His business was carried on at the sign of the Trinity in St. Paul's Churchyard, a house which had belonged to another stationer, Henry Jacobi, whom Pepwell seems to have succeeded, and whose device, with the surname cut out, he used in some of his books. Between 1518 and 1523 Pepwell printed eight books, all of a popular character, and in 1525–6 was appointed warden of the Company of Stationers.
In 1531, at the request of Stokeslaye, bishop of London, he employed the Antwerp printer, Michael Hillenius, to print an edition of Eckius's ‘Enchiridion locorum communium adversus Lutheranos,’ now known from one surviving copy. In 1534 Pepwell is mentioned in the will of Wynkyn de Worde, who leaves him 4l. in printed books. In 1539 he printed some small grammars for the use of St. Paul's school, and on 11 Sept. of the same year made his will, which was proved on 8 Feb. 1540, so that his death probably took place at the beginning of that year. By his will he makes his wife Ursula sole executrix, and William Bonham, the printer, one of the supervisors. Most of his property is bequeathed to his children, none of whom are mentioned by name, though it is probable that the Arthur Pepwell whose name frequently occurs at a later date in the ‘Stationers' Registers’ was his son.
[Ames's Typogr. Antiq. ed. Herbert, i. 310–316; Bibliographica, pt. ii.]