A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/More (John)
MORE (JOHN), Assigns of [i.e., Miles Fletcher, John Haviland, and Robert Young], 1629-61. On January 19th, 15 James I [1618], letters patent were granted to John More or Moore, Esquire, for the sole printing of all books of the Common Law, Statutes, as well as Rastell's and Poulton's Abridgements, for a term of forty years, on the expiration of the patent previously held by Thomas Wight and Bonham Norton, which expired on March 10th, 16289. Whether or not More himself actually printed is uncertain, but he provided a stock of type. On May 1st, 1629, he assigned over all his printing rights to Miles Fletcher and his partners John Haviland and Robert Young, for an annual payment of £60 and a third of the profits. John More died on August 17th, 1638, leaving this annuity to his daughter Martha, the wife of Richard Atkyns, q.v. This legacy was the subject of a law suit which ended disastrously for Fletcher, who, after the death of his partners, had made a verbal assignment of his rights to the Company of Stationers for a cash payment of £200, but subsequently refused to carry it out, alleging that by a decree made in the Court of Chancery the patent was vested in Richard Atkyns. [P.R.O. Chancery Proceedings. Before 1715. Reynardson, Bund. 31, 126.]