A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Bulkley, Bulkeley, or Buckley (Stephen)

by Henry Robert Plomer

BULKLEY, BULKELEY, or BUCKLEY (STEPHEN), printer in London, York, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and Gateshead, 1639–80. One of the sons of Joseph Bulkley, bookseller, of Canterbury. He was apprenticed to a London printer, Adam Islip, for eight years from February 2nd (Candlemas Day), 1630/1, and took up his freedom February 4th, 1639. Stephen Bulkley then appears to have joined John Beale, q.v. Their initials are found in a book entitled The Secretary in Fashion, a translation by John Massinger, dated 1640. They also printed Lewis De Gand's Sol Britannicus, 1641, a pamphlet written in praise of King Charles, but in this instance Bulkley's name is printed Buckley, a mistake which also occurs in the spelling of the name in the Register of Apprenticeships at Stationers' Hall. In this same year, 1641, Stephen Bulkley printed for two London booksellers a book entitled The Masse in Latin and English, a translation by James Mountaine of Du Moulin's Anatomie of the Masse, of which three issues are known. Two political pamphlets have also been traced to Bulkley's London press, in consequence of which he was ordered to appear before the House of Commons as a delinquent, but fled to York, taking his press and letters with him. At York his first issue was Sir B. Rudyard's speech, which he printed on July 23rd, 1642. In 1646 he moved to Newcastle, where he remained till 1652; from thence he went to Gateshead, and it is said that during this time he was thrown into prison and plundered of his goods for his loyalty. He returned to Newcastle in 1659 and remained there till 1662, when he returned to York and set up his press in the parish of St. Michael le Belfrey. In 1666 he was in trouble for printing a book called An Apology of the English Catholics. In a letter to the Secretary of State written at this time, Bulkley is described as getting "but a poore livelyhood, a man well beloved amongst the ould cavaleers and an object of charity." He died in the month of February 1679/80, and was succeeded in his printing house by his son John. [Register of Apprenticeships, Stationers' Hall; Davies' History of the York Press; Domestic State Papers, Charles II, vol. 175, 28; Library, January, 1907.]