Publications of Will. Wells

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 the seller and printer roles in combination, or an absence of the printer's name following "London: printed:" or "London: printed,":

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

On this last point, trade publishers may seem to have "printed" or "published" the work, though they did not own the copyright. The lists below reflect only the information on the imprint, except where ESTC provides extra information.

See also "The Meaning of the Imprint."

Printed by Will. Wells

  • An help for the more easy and clear understanding of the Holy Scriptures: being the book of Genesis, Explain'd after the following Method, viz. I. The common English translation render'd more agreeable to the original. II. A paraphrase, wherein the Text is explain'd, and divided into proper Sections and other lesser Divisions. III. Annotations as Occasion requires. Hereto is prefix'd IV. A preface, at the end whereof whereof are publish'd the proposals for printing the four remaining books of Moses. By Edw. Wells, D.D. Rector of Cotesbach in Leicestershire. Oxford: printed at the Theater, 1724. And sold by Will. Wells Bookseller in Oxford; and Ja. Knapton at the Crown in St Paul's Church Yard, London, [1724]. ESTC No. T112333. Grub Street ID 164330.

Printed for Will. Wells

  • Killigrew, William. The imperial tragedy: taken out of a Latin play, and very much altered: by a gentleman for his own diversion. Who, on the importunity of friends, has consented to have it published; but without his name: because many do censure plays, according to their opinions of the author. London: Printed for Will. Wells and Rob. Scott at the Prince's-Armes in Little Britain, M.DC.LXIX. [1669]. ESTC No. R17594. Grub Street ID 68652.