A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Hodgkinson (Richard)
HODGKINSON (RICHARD), printer in London; Thames Street, near Baynard's Castle, 1624-68. Took up his freedom April 8th, 1616. [Arber, iii. 684.] In Sir John Lambe's notes he is said to have been the son of a printer, possibly Thomas Hodgkinson, who is mentioned in the Rasters between 1580 and 1597. Some time in 1635, Richard Hodgkinson was in trouble with the Star Chamber and his press and letters had been seized, but on the recommendation of the Commissioners they were restored to him. This, however, had not taken place at the time when Lambe made these notes. [Acts of the Court of High Commission, Domestic State Papers, Charles I, vol. 324, f. 307b] On March 21st, 1637, another entry in the State Papers shows that he had purchased type from Arthur Nicholls the type-founder, and some dispute as to payment resulted. [Domestic State Papers, Charles I, vol. 350, 53, 53 (1).] In the same year he was in trouble for printing Doctor John Cowell's Interpreter, but this did not prevent his being chosen as one of the twenty printers appointed under the Act. He was the printer of the first volume of Sir W. Dugdale's Monasticon, which, next to the Polyglott Bible, must be considered a "magnus opus" of the Commonwealth period. He was still a master printer in 1668, but as no return of his office is given with the rest, he would have appeared to have died or retired from business about that time.