[Bell Historians] Stedman, the printer

[Richard Smith]

I've spent a short time this morning looking through some of 
the records of the Worshipful Company of Stationers (of 
which Stedman was a member) which have been transcribed 
quite thoroughly in the three-volumn /Transcripts of the 
Registers of the Worshipful Company of Stationers: From 
1640-1708 AD/, London (1913-4).

Under the Licensing of Press Act (1662), all books had to be 
licensed by an appointed Licenser, who for the duration of 
the act was Sir Roger L'Estrange.  The act lapsed in 1679. 
So far as I can make out, records of these licensings appear 
in the records of the Stationers' Company.  Certainly the 
records of the company seem little more than a list of books 
printed by its members, together with the payment of a 
nominal 6d fee.

I can only find mention of five works printed by Stedman. 
They are as follows:


16o Junii 1665

Master Fab. Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
Master L'Estrange and Master Warden Pulleyn a paper 
Intituled, /To His royall highnesse Duke of Yorke a 
Congratulatory Poem on that signall victory obteined by his 
Maties Navy under his heroick conduct agt ye States fleet of 
the United Netherland on ye 3d of June 1665/ . . .  vj.d


16o Junii 1665

Master Fab. Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
Master L'Estrange and Master Warden Pulleyn, a paper 
intituled, /An Essay uppon the late victory obteined by his 
royall Highnesse the Duke of Yorke agt the Dutch, uppon
June ye 3d 1665/, by the author of Iter Boreale/ . . . vj.d


February 8 1667 [i.e. 1667/8]

Master Fabyan Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
Master L'Estrange and Master Warden Royston a booke or copie 
intituled /Tintinnalogia or the Art of Ringing/ By a Lover 
of that Art . . . vj.d


5th September 1676

Master Fabian Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
Master Roger L'Estrange and Master Warden Clark a book or 
copy intituled /The Art of Ringing improved wth plaine & 
easy rules to guide the practiconer in the ringing of all 
sorts of changes, to wch is added 98 new crosse peales./


11th Decembr. 1676

Master Fabian Stedman . . . Entred . . . under the hands of 
Roger L'Estrange Esqr and Master Warden Clark a book or copy 
intituled /Eighteene very practicall peales upon six & eight 
hells composed wth mixt grounds, togeather wth a second 
Imperiall Bob/, Composed by F. S.



Of the five works, three were described as "a book or copy" 
and were on ringing; the other two were merely "a paper" 
congratulating the Duke of York (later James II).  The 
Stationers' records may well be incomplete, but there seems 
no reason why they should favour ringing works rather than 
others, so I can only assume that a high proportion of his 
works were on ringing.

Stedman had been apprenticed to Daniel Pakeham, a master 
printer, on 7 July 1656.  Apprenticeships had been fixed at 
seven years by the Statute of Artificer (1562), and very 
nearly seven years later on 4 July 1663, Stedman became a 
Freeman of the Stationers' Company.  He was not yet a master 
printer, and it's unlikely he ever became one.  Stedman may 
have been the licensed publisher of these works, but he did 
not have a press on which to print it.  If he had continued 
as a printer, he would have been a journeyman in the employ 
of some other master printer, but John Eisel speculates that 
he had become a bookseller (c.f. RW 2010 p.489-90).

Of the five works mentioned above, I have only heard of 
three of them.  There is a copy of the essay to the Duke of 
York in the British Library, but the congratulatory poem, so 
far as I can tell, has not to have survived.  Tintinnalogia 
is well known.  The fourth work, 'The Art of Ringing 
improved' is clearly Campanalogia, although the title of 
first edition of Campanalogia (1677) concludes "Ringing of 
all kinds of Changes, to Which is added, great variety of 
new peals."  Other than changing "all sorts" to "all kinds", 
the title no longer concluded "added 98 new crosse peales": 
"crosse" had been removed, and "98" changed to "great 
variety of".

This leaves the fifth work, also on ringing. /Eighteene very 
practicall peales upon six & eight hells composed wth mixt 
grounds, togeather wth a second Imperiall Bob/, Composed by 
F.S.  Was this another early ringing book that has since 
become lost?  Or had the contents of it become merged with 
that of his other planned book of 1676 to form the 1677 
Campanalogia?  This could explain why the "98 new crosse 
peales" was changed on the cover.  It might also explain 
Trollope's observation that Tintinnalogia bore L'Estrange's 
imprimatur, where Campanalogia did not (c.f. Trollope MS vol 
ii, p.428).  Maybe Campanalogia was not ever licensed for 
publication in its final form, but produce by combining the 
two works that had both been licensed?

Has there ever been a facsimile reprint made of the 1677 
Campanalogia?  I have copies of the third (1733) and sixth 
(1766) editions, but I do not have access to the first 
edition to check this.  If there were a "second Imperiall 
Bob" composed by Stedman in the first edition Campanalogia, 
this would be a strong clue.

RAS


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