A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who Were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667/Royston (Richard)

by Henry Robert Plomer

ROYSTON (RICHARD), bookseller in London and Oxford; London, Angel in Ivy Lane, 1629-86; St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 1667. His first book entry occurs on January 28th, 162 8/9. [Arber, iv. 208.] In 1631 he published T. Heywood's Fair Maid of the West. In 1645 he was accused of being a factor for scandalous books and papers against the Parliament, and thrown into prison. [Hist. MSS. Comm., 6th Rep., pp. 71-2.] The first edition of Εἰκων Βασιλικη was published by him in 1648. [Almack, Bibliography of the King's Book, 1896.] He was several times called before the Council of State for publishing unlicensed and scandalous books and pamphlets, and was with other booksellers and printers bound in sureties in 1649-50. [Cal. of Domestic State Papers, 1649-50, pp. 362, 524.] At the Restoration he was granted the monopoly of printing the works of Charles I, and was allowed a sum of £300 in consequence of his losses by the fire of London in 1666. [Cal. of Domestic State Papers, 1666-7, p. 167.] He was Master of the Stationers' Company in 1673 and 1674. Royston died in 1686, aged 86. By his will, proved on November 16th, he desired to be buried in St. Paul's, but probably the Cathedral was not then finished, and his wishes could not be carried out, so he was buried in Christ Church, Newgate Street. He bequeathed all his copyrights to his grand-daughter Elizabeth Maior, daughter of Mary, the wife of Richard Chiswell, on the understanding that she married with her mother's consent, otherwise the copyrights were to pass to his grandsons, Royston Chiswell, Richard Chiswell, and John Chiswell. Another curious clause in connection with these copyrights was that the holder of them was to be a member of the Church of England. Whether these conditions were fulfilled is unknown, but Elizabeth, the daughter of Mary Chiswell, married Luke Meredith, her grandfather's apprentice. [Timperley, p. 569.] Royston left bequests to the following booksellers of Oxford: George West, Richard Davis, John Crosley and John Wilmot, which seems to bear out the statement that he had a bookseller's shop there. [Madan, Chart of Oxford Printing, p. 29.] He also bequeathed a piece of plate of the value of twenty pounds to the Company of Stationers. [P.C.C. 154, Lloyd.] A Catalogue of some books printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivie Lane, London, and some formerly printed at Oxford, is found at the end of the second part of William Langley's sermon, The persecuted Minister, 1655 [1656.] [E. 860 (4), D.N.B.]