Publications of the executors

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 the executors

  • The statutes at large, passed in the Parliaments held in Ireland: from the third year of Edward the Second, A.D. 1310. To the seventh year of George the Third A.D. 1767 inclusive. With marginal notes, and a compleat index. Continued ... Dublin: printed by the executors of David Hay, assignee of the late Boulter Grierson, 1782. ESTC No. N24157. Grub Street ID 13519.

Sold by the executors

  • Kennet, B. A letter to the Reverend Dr. Legh, Vicar of Halifax, relating to the present misunderstanding between the Vicar of Bradford, and his lecturer. By B. Kennet, A.M. Vicar of Bradford. Leeds: printed and sold by the executors of the late John Hirst, 1733. ESTC No. N72129. Grub Street ID 51970.

Printed for the executors

  • Milton, John. L'allegro, ed il penseroso. By Milton. Set to musick by George Frederick Handel. London: printed for the executors of J. Watts, and sold by T. Lowndes in Fleet-Street, [1768?]. ESTC No. N31934. Grub Street ID 20811.