Nicholas Ling (fl. 1580–1607)
Nicholas Ling, bookseller, 1580–1607; at the Mermaid in St. Paul’s Churchyard 1580–1583; at tthe West Door of St. Paul’s Church, 1584–1592; at the North-west Door of St. Paul’s Church, 1593–1596; at the [Little] West Door of St. Paul’s Church, 1597; in St. Dunstan’s Churchyard in Fleet Street, 1600–1607. Son of John Lyng of Norwich, parchment maker, he was apprentice to Henry Bynneman for eight years from Michaelmas, 1570, and took up his freedom in the Company on January 19th, 1578/9.
A dictionary of printers and booksellers in England, Scotland and Ireland, and of foreign printers of English books 1557–1640, by R.B. McKerrow (1910)
LING (NICHOLAS), bookseller in London, 1580–1607; (i) The Mermaid in St. Paul’s Churchyard 1580–3; (2) West Door of St. Paul’s Church, 1584–92; (3) North-west Door of St. Paul’s Church, 1593–6; (4) At the [Little] West Door of St. Paul’s Church, 1597; (5) In St. Dunstan’s Churchyard in Fleet Street, 1600–7. Son of John Lyng of Norwich, parchment maker, apprentice to Henry Bynneman for eight years from Michaelmas, 1570, and took up his freedom in the Company on January 19th, 1578/9 [Arber, ii. 679]. His first book entry in the Registers was made in company with John Charlewood on June 1st, 1582 [Arber, ii. 413], but between August 3rd, 1584, and October 6th, 1590, he entered nothing. But after that date he appears as joint publisher with John Busby, Thomas Millington, Cuthbert Burby and Robert Allot, in such works as Thomas Nashe’s Lenten Stuffe, i599» R. Allot’s England's Parfiassus, 1600. In 1597 Nicholas Ling edited a collection of prose quotations called Politeuphuia, Wits Commonwealth, for which he wrote a dedication and preface to the reader. On November 19th, 1607, Nicholas Ling’s copies were transferred to John Smethwicke, and his death may be presumed to have taken place between this time and 1610, when sentence on his will was pronounced by the probate court. He left no son. [P.C.C., 58, Wingfield.] Nicholas Ling used as his device a ling and honeysuckle, with the letters N. L., usually found on the titlepages of his publications.