Publications of J. Smith

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 J. Smith

  • The French King's wedding: or, the royal frolick. ... London: printed by J. Smith, near Fleet-Street, 1708. ESTC No. T40208. Grub Street ID 269316.
  • The life and glorious character of the Right Honourable Laurence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, Lord President of the Privy-Council, and Uncle to Her present Majesty Queen Anne, who suddenly departed this Life at his House near the Cock-Pit in White-Hall, on Wednesday the 2d of May 1711, in the 70th Year of his Age. With an Elegy and Epitaph on the said Nobleman. London: printed by J. Smith near Fleet-Street, [1711]. ESTC No. T53981. Grub Street ID 280851.
  • Marlborough, John Churchill. The case of his Grace the D-- of M---- as design'd to be represented by him to the Honourable House of Commons, in vindication of himself from the charge of the Commissioners of Account; in relation to the two and half per cent. bread and bread waggons. ... [London]: Printed by J. Smith near Fleet-Street, 1712. ESTC No. N26777. Grub Street ID 16149.
  • The Dreadful tragedy: or, The barbarous lover. In four parts. I. How a young squire fell in love with a beautiful young lady near Bristol, with their private Intreagues of love unknown to their parents. II. Shewing the falseness of the young gentleman, who left her for another love, after she had proved with child by him and how her cruel parents turn’d her out of doors, and afterwards in a wood she was delivered of a beautiful son and a daughter and how she sent a letter in hopes he would have compassion on her, and her two babes. III. How the squire upon receiving her letter, sent her to an Inn-keeper’s, where she had no been above six months before his new mistress hearing of it, told him, she would have nothing to say to him while his former mistress was alive; saying, if she should, she never should be happy. And how then he agreed with the Inn-keeper, to give him two thousand pounds to murder the young lady and her two babies. IV. How the Inn-keeper was taken up, and had before a justice, here he was charg’d with the murder, but deny’d it for a while, till the apparition of the mother and the two babies appeared, supriz’d him so, that he confessed the horrid fact, so that he confessed the horrid fact, so that he and the squire were both try’d , condemn’d, and hang’d for this inhuman and barbarous murder. London: Printed for J. Smith near Fleet-street, [1715?]. ESTC No. T197015. Grub Street ID 230272.

Printed for J. Smith

  • Congreve, William. A prologue spoken by Mrs. Bracegirdle, at the entertainment of Love for love. London: printed for J. Smith near Fleetstreet, 1709. ESTC No. N12153. Grub Street ID 2165.
  • Sacheverell, Henry. Dr. Sacheverell's most admirable and incomparable love-powder: or, his infalliable [sic] art of making the most envious, spightful, and malitious persons, become your true, constant, real, admired friends and lovers of your person in an instant. ... [London]: Printed for J. Smith near Fleet Street. And enter'd according to order, [1710?]. ESTC No. N8967. Grub Street ID 53870.
  • Pittis, William. The L---d T-rs out at last, and diliver'd up his s--ff. London: printed for J. Smith, near Fleet-street, 1710. ESTC No. T123882. Grub Street ID 174194.
  • Sharp, John. A practical discourse of the sin against the Holy Ghost: ... By Dr. Sharpe, B----p of Y----. London: printed for J. Smith, 1710. ESTC No. T44124. Grub Street ID 272595.
  • A true list of the names of those that are turn'd out at C----t, and of those that are put in their places. London: printed for J. Smith, near Fleet-street, 1710. ESTC No. T5942. Grub Street ID 285436.
  • Lloyd, William. An elegy on the much lamented death of Wriothseley Duke of Bedford, ... who being lately ill of the small-pox, departed this life at Southampton-House, in Bloomsbury-Square, on Saturday the 26th of May 1711, in the 31st year of his age. By the Reverend Dr. Loyd. [London]: Printed for J. Smith, in Fleet-street, [1711]. ESTC No. T197721. Grub Street ID 230712.
  • The Queens pocket looking-glass: for the honourable the House of Commons· In which they may plainly see the ruine of the kingdome of Great Britain; if not quickly prevented by the Parliament. Licensed according to Act of Parliament. London: printed for J. Smith, near Fleet-street, 1712. ESTC No. N70034. Grub Street ID 50815.
  • A rare and new receipt to make all bad husbands good ones: in a pretty dialogue between two new married wives pleasantly handled for the knowledge of their own sex ... London: printed for J Smith, near Fleet-Street, [1715?]. ESTC No. N13680. Grub Street ID 3578.