his wife. [P.R.O. Chan. Proc Before 1715. Reynardson, Bund. 31, 126.] At one time Henry Twyford and John Streator, q.v., were two of the assigns of R. Atkyns, whose name does not appear in any law book before 1677. Richard Atkyns is chiefly remembered as the author of a work entitled The Origin and Growth of Printing, 1664, in which he put forward the theory that the art of printing was introduced into England and begun at Oxford by a certain Frederick Corsellis in 1468, and that the Exposicio sancti Jeronimi was printed by him. This story has long since been proved to be unfounded, and the date in the Exposicio has been proved to the satisfaction of all bibliographers to be a misprint for 1478. Atkyns subsequently fell into distress, partly, it is believed, by the vagaries and extravagances of his wife, and was committed to the Marshalsea for debt. He died without issue on September 14th, 1677, and was buried in the church of St. George the Martyr, Southwark. [D.N.B.]
AUSTIN (JOHN), bookseller in London, 1642. His name occurs on the following broadside: A List of the names of such persons who are thought fit for their accommodation, and the furtherance of the service in Ireland, to be entertained as reformadoes, [Bibl. Lind. Catalogue of English Broadsides, No. 29.] His address has not been found. He may be identical with John Aston.
AUSTIN, or AUSTEN (ROBERT), printer in London, (1) Old Bailey, 1643; (2) Addlehill, Thames Street, 1649–50. 1642–56. Took up his freedom November 7th, 1636. [Arber, iii. 688.] He is chiefly worthy of notice as the printer of Geoige Wither's Campo-Musa, 1643, and the same author's Vox Pacifica in 1645. In 1643, in company with Andrew Coe, he printed some numbers of a news-sheet entitled A Perfect Diurnal of the Passages in Parliament. There was another publication bearing a very similar title, A Perfect Diurnall of some Passages in Parliament, of which Francis Coles and Lawrence Blacklock were the publishers. Both claimed precedency, but the Stationers' Company apparently refused to recognise the Perfect Diurnal of Austin and Coe, as no entry of it is found in the registers, whereas that of Coles and Blacklock was regularly entered and continued to run for several years. Austin was also interested in other news-sheets. On November 3rd, 1643, he started Informator Rusticus, or The Country Intelligencer, which does not seem to have got beyond its first
