BILL (JOHN), the First, Assigns of (1630-60). In his will, proved on May 12th, 1630, John Bill made especial mention of James Burrage, and desired him to continue the same employment in the printing office he then had. He also mentions a William Garrett. But there is no evidence that these were the assigns referred to. One of his executors was Martin Lucas, who, with Robert Barker, was fined £300 for leaving the word "not" out of the seventh commandment in the edition of the Bible printed in 1632, but Lucas was not a printer. In all probability the real printers and assigns were Miles Fletcher, John Haviland, and Robert Young, who controlled so many of the London printing houses at that time.
BILL (JOHN), the Second, printer in London; (?) Hunsdon House, Blackfriars, 1630-80 (?). The son of John Bill, the King's Printer, who died in 1630, and who by his will left all his estate and terme in his part of the King's Printing Office to his son. During the Commonwealth, Henry Hills, and John Field, q.v., were appointed printers to the State, and it was said that John Bill the second and Christopher Barker the third, q.v., sold to them the manuscript copy of the last translation of the Bible. On the Restoration, Christopher Barker the third and John Bill the second were restored to the position of King's Printers. John Bill the second continued to enjoy his share of the profits of the office during his lifetime, and his successors till the end of the Stuart period. [Plomer, Wills, p. 53; Library, N.S., October, 1901, pp. 353-75.]
BIRD (HENRY), bookseller (?) in London, 1641. His name is given as one of the "better sort of freemen" of the Stationers' Company, in a list of those who had paid their respective proportions of the poll tax on August 5th, 1641. [Domestic State Papers, Charles I, vol. 483, 11.]
BIRD (THEOPHILUS), bookseller in London, 1656. Associated with A. Penneycuicke in publishing Ford and Decker's masque, The Sun's Darling, 1656. His name appears at the end of the Epistle Dedicatory.
BISHOP (GEORGE), printer in London; (?) Warwick Court, Warwick Lane, 1641-44. In partnership with Robert White, q.v. Their work included the following news-sheets: Certaine Informations from several parts of the kingdom, 1643; Kingdoms Weekly Intelligence, 1643, and Mercurius Britanicus.
