Women’s Printing in Restoration Lo[n]don - 1668- Sarah Griffin

Women’s Printing in Restoration Lo[n]don

“Blessednesse of the Righteous Discoursed from Psal. 17, 15”

By John Howe M.A.

“LODON, Printed by Sarah Griffin, for Samuel Thomson and are to be sold at the sign of the Bishops-

head in Duck-Lane, 1668

First edition

Complete text: [24], 427 [i.e. 463] pages

Original full calf binding. Joints cracked but holding firm. Paper slip to top of title page and later crude

pastedowns to inner boards.

Sarah Griffin was the wife of the printer Edward Griffin II. When Edward died in 1652, she inherited

the printing business and remained active as a London printer from 1653 to 1673. An accomplished

printer, she is recorded as employing six workmen at two printing presses. She is also recorded as

being appointed apprentices to learn the Printing trade by The Stationers’ Company at her press.

The work itself is a puritanical tract that extols the virtue of seeing God. It is based around Psalm

17:15 -

“As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy

likeness”. The author, John Howe (1630-1705), was one of Oliver Cromwell’s chaplains in the 1650s.

He would remain non-conformist in his views and was excluded from the Church of England Ministry

from 1662.

The work is also noticeable for the prominent typo on the title page with “London” being spelt

“Lodon”.