Publications of Hugh Meere

Note: The following printer, bookseller, or publisher lists are works in progress. They are generated from title page imprints and may reproduce false and misleading attributions or contain errors.

What does "printed by" mean? How to read the roles ascribed to people in the imprints.

In terms of the book trades, the lists below are sorted into up to four groups where: the person is designated in the imprint as having a single role:

  1. "printed by x"; or
  2. "sold by x"; or
  3. "printed for x" or "published by x"; or

as having multiple roles in combination (which suggests a likelihood that the person is a trade publisher):

  1. "printed and sold by x"; "printed for and sold by x"; or "printed by and for x" and so on.

Printers (owners of the type and printing presses, and possibly owners of the copyright) may be identified by the words printed by, but printed by does not universally designate a person who is a printer by trade. Booksellers may be identified by the words sold by, but sold by encompasses a number of roles. Booksellers or individuals who owned the copyright are generally identified by the words printed for, but nothing should be concluded in this regard without further evidence, especially since "printed for" could signify that the named person was a distributor rather than a copyright holder. Trade publishers, who distributed books and pamphlets but did not own the copyright or employ a printer—and were not printers themselves—might be identified by the words printed and sold by. Furthermore, works from this period often display false imprints, whether to evade copyright restrictions, to conceal the name of the copyright holders, or to dupe unwitting customers. Ultimately, one must proceed with caution in using the following lists: designations in the imprints may not reliably reflect the actual trades or roles of the people named, and the formulas used in imprints do not consistently mean the same thing.

David Foxon discussed the "meaning of the imprint" in his Lyell Lecture delivered at Oxford in March 1976, with particular attention to "publishers" in the eighteenth-century context:

The fullest form of an imprint is one which names three people, or groups of people:
     London: printed by X (the printer), for Y (the bookseller who owned the copyright), and sold by Z.
In the eighteenth century the printer's name is rarely given, at least in works printed in London, and the form is more commonly:
     London: printed for Y, and sold by Z.
Very often in this period, and particularly for pamphlets, it is further abbreviated to:
     London: printed and sold by Z.
It is this last form which is my present concern. Z is usually what the eighteenth century called 'a publisher', or one who distributes books and pamphlets without having any other responsibility—he does not own the copyright or employ a printer, or even know the author.

D. F. McKenzie coined the term "trade publisher" for these publishers in his Sandars Lectures, also in 1976, on the grounds that their principal role was to publish on behalf of other members of the book trade (Treadwell 100).

Michael Treadwell cautions that "In this period the imprint 'London: Printed and sold by A.B.' normally means 'Printed at London, and sold by A.B.' and must not be taken to mean that A.B. is a printer in the absence of other evidence." Further, "The imprint 'published by' occurs only rarely in Wing and is almost always associated with the name of a trade publisher" (104). While there are exceptions to the rule, it is "certain," he explains, "that anyone who made a speciality of distributing works for others will show a far higher proportion than normal of imprints in one of the 'sold by' forms" (116), which appear in the imprint as "sold by," "printed and sold by," or "published by" (104). Treadwell gives Walter Kettilby as an example of "a fairly typical copyright-owning bookseller" (106)—his role is almost always designated by the phrase "printed for" on imprints.

A final caution: publisher is a word that should be used with some deliberation. Samuel Johnson defines it simply as "One who puts out a book into the world," but "published by" rarely appears on the imprint until later in the eighteenth century, and then primarily associated with newspapers and pamphlets. Treadwell observes that John Dunton names only five publishers among the 200 binders and booksellers in his autobiographical Life and Errors (1705) wherein he undertakes "to draw the Character of the most Eminent [Stationers] in the Three Kingdoms" (100). Treadwell also remarks, however, that "in law, anyone who offered a work for sale 'published' it. In this sense every work had one or more 'publishers', and every bookseller, mercury, and hawker was a 'publisher'" (114).

See:

  • Terry Belanger, "From Bookseller to Publisher: Changes in the London Book Trade, 1750–1850," in Book Selling and Book Buying. Aspects of the Nineteenth-Century British and North American Book Trade, ed. Richard G. Landon (Chicago: American Library Association, 1978).
  • Bricker, Andrew Benjamin. "Who was 'A. Moore'? The Attribution of Eighteenth-Century Publications with False and Misleading Imprints," in The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 110.2 (2016).
  • John Dunton, The Life and Errors of John Dunton (London: Printed for S. Malthus, 1705).
  • John Feather, "The Commerce of Letters: The Study of the Eighteenth-Century Book Trade," Eighteenth-Century Studies 17 (1984).
  • David Foxon, Pope and the Early Eighteenth-Century Book Trade, ed. James McLaverty (Oxford University Press, 1991).
  • Samuel Johnson, Dictionary of the English Language, (printed for J. and P. Knapton; T. and T. Longman; C. Hitch and L. Hawes; A. Millar; and R. and J. Dodsley, 1755).
  • D.F. McKenzie, The London Book Trade in the Later Seventeenth Century (Sandars lectures in bibliography, 1977).
  • Michael Treadwell, "London Trade Publishers 1675–1750," The Library sixth series, vol. 4, no. 2 (1982).

Printed by Hugh Meere

  • Guilleragues, Gabriel Joseph de Lavergne. Love without affectation, in five letters from a Portuguese nun, to a French cavalier. Done into English verse, from the newest edition lately printed at Paris. To which is added, a prefatory discourse of the nature and use of such epistles in general; with the excellency of these in particular; the time when they were written; the reasons why; the true names and circumstances of the persons concern'd in them; and undeniable proofs given of the pretended answers to them, which go under the name of the chevlier Del, being spurious. Never extant before, and communicated to the translator in verse, by unquestionable authorities. London: printed by H. Meere; and sold by J. Woodward in Threadneedle-Street, and J. Morphew near Stationers-Hall, 1709. ESTC No. T75810. Grub Street ID 298433.
  • Martindale, Adam. The country survey-book: or, land meter's vade-mecum. Wherein the principles and practical rules for surveying of land, are so plainly (tho' briefly) deliver'd, that any one of ordinary Parts, (understanding how to add, substract, multiply, and divide) may, by the Help of this small Treatise alone, and a few cheap Instruments easy to be procur'd, measure a Parcel of Land, and with Judgment and Expedition plot it, and give up the Content thereof. With an appendix, containing twelve problems, touching Compound-Interest and Annuities; and a Method to contract the Work of Fellowship and Alligation alternate, very considerable in many Cases. Illustrated with several copper plates. By Adam Martindale, a Friend to Mathematical Learning. London: printed by Hugh Meere, for George Sawbridge, at the three Golden Flower d' Luces in Little Britain, 1711. ESTC No. T83325. Grub Street ID 303731.
  • Ward, Edward. Matrimony unmask'd; or, the comforts and discomforts of marriage display'd. By the author of Aminidab; or, the Quaker's vision. London: printed by H. Meere, for J. Woodward in Scalding-Alley near Stocks-Market, T. Norris at the Looking-Glass, and A. Bettesworth at the Red Lyon, both on London-Bridge, 1714. ESTC No. N10989. Grub Street ID 978.
  • Fox. The Wanderer. London [England]: printed by H. Meere in Black-Fryers, and sold by J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane; where letters and advertisements are taken in, [1717]. ESTC No. P3139. Grub Street ID 56556.
  • The Daily post. London [England]: printed by H[ugh]. Meere in Black-Fryers, and sold by W. Boreham in Paternoster-Row; by whom advertisements are taken in, [1719]-. ESTC No. P1796. Grub Street ID 55566.
  • Mackworth, Humphrey. To the Honourable the knights, citizens, and burgesses of Great Britain, in Parliament assembled, the humble proposal of Sir Humphrey Mackworth, for restoring the national credit, ... London: printed by H. Meere, 1721. ESTC No. T51260. Grub Street ID 278630.
  • The Weekly packet. London (England): printed by H(ugh). Meere, for E. Place at Furnival's-Inn-Gate in Holborn, and sold by A. Dodd at the Peacock without Temple-Bar, and J[ohn]. Graves in St. James's-street, -[1721]. ESTC No. P1698. Grub Street ID 55481.

Sold by Hugh Meere

  • A perfect list, alphabetically digested, of the knights, citizens, burgesses, commissioners of shires and burghs, of the third Parliament of Great Britain, summon'd to meet the 25th day of November 1710. London: printed and sold by H. Meere, 1710. ESTC No. N11187. Grub Street ID 1181.
  • The historical register, containing an impartial relation of all transactions, Foreign and Domestick. Volume I. For the year 1716. Publish'd at the Expence of the Sun Fire-Office. London: printed and sold by H. Meere in Black Fryars, 1717. ESTC No. T154318. Grub Street ID 198450.

Printed for Hugh Meere

  • Eales, Mary. Mrs. Mary Eales's receipts. Confectioner to her late majesty Queen Anne. London: printed by H. Meere in Black-Fryers, and to be had at Mr. Cooper's at the Three Pidgeons the lower End of Bedford-Street, near the New Exchange in the Strand, MDCCXVIII. [1718]. ESTC No. T90918. Grub Street ID 310762.
  • A view of the advantages arising to the copartners, or Company of the Mineral Manufactures at Neath, by making and manufacturing copper, brass, lead, and iron, in their work-houses there. Presented to the new partners. By Thomas Williams, Secretary; and John Hopkins, Accomptant. London: printed for H. Meere in Black-Fryers, 1721. ESTC No. T92795. Grub Street ID 312541.

Author

  • Meere, Hugh. Specimen. That there is nothing more dreadful than death, to such as have no hope in God. [London]: H. Meere, printer, at the Black-fryar in Black-fryars, London, [1710?]. ESTC No. T150349. Grub Street ID 196175.