Langley Curtiss (fl. 1666–1690)

CURTIS (LANGLY), bookseller in London, (i) Goat Court, (a) on Ludgate Hill, (b) near Fleet Bridge; (2) Sir Edmonbury Godfrey's Head, near Fleet Bridge. 1668–90. Apparently all these addresses refer to the same shop. On February 16th, 1668 [i. e. 166⁸/₉] he entered The Quaker's Spirituall Cort [sic] proclaymed. [Stat. Reg. Roxb., II. 397.] He published several papers in support of Gates and Bedloe, and amongst others A Pacquet of Advice from Rome, a weekly sheet the first number of which appeared on Friday, December 3rd, 1678. He and his wife Jane were frequently in trouble with the authorities. On February 7th, 16⁷⁹/₈₀ Jane Curtis was tried for printing a copy of verses reflecting on the Lord Chief Justice entitled Scroggs upon Scroggs, and in April 1683, Langly Curtis was ordered to pay £500 and stand in the pillory in Bloomsbury Market for publishing Lord Russell's Ghost, or the Night Walker of Bloomsbury. [London Gazette, April 21–24, 1683.] In this year he also printed an answer to Elkanah Settle's Narrative [Nichols, Lit. Anecd., I. 43], after which nothing more is heard of him in the Term Catalogues, but Hazlitt traces him until 1690. [Haz. i. 456.]