# Primary Sources on Copyright - Record Viewer
Tonson v. Walker, London (1751)

Source: The National Archives c.11 1106/18

Citation:
Tonson v. Walker, London (1751), Primary Sources on Copyright (1450-1900), eds L. Bently & M. Kretschmer, www.copyrighthistory.org

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or Lives of the said John Milton and the said Index composed and written by the said Elijah Fenton And to the said Copy of Annotations
Comments Various Readings and Amendments made and written by the said Doctor Bentley And to the said Copy of the Life of the said
John Milton and preface and of the Notes Corrections Indexes Glossarys Composed and Written by the said Doctor Newton And also to the
said Copper plates and Copper plate prints And to the sole benefit priviledge and Advantage of printing reprinting publishing and vending
the same And that such Entries of the Right of Your Orators And of the Several persons under whom they respectively claim as aforesaid in
and to the said Copies have from time to time been duly made in the Registers of the said Company of Stationers of the City of London as
aforesaid And that your Orators and the said Several persons under whom they respectively Claim as aforesaid And they only have
quietly and uninteruptedly had and Enjoyed the sole and exclusive right of printing reprinting and vending the said Poem Lives prefaces
Indexes Annotations Comments Various readings Amendments Notes Corrections and Glossaryes ever since the same were first printed and
published without any person or persons Invading or attempting to Invade dispute or Interrupt their said right by printing reprinting
publishing or Vending the same Yet the said Robert Walker and John Marchant have lately printed and incerted or caused to be printed and
incerted in Several of the publilck News Papers and in other papers and to be delivered out distributed and carried all over Great Britain
Advertisements or proposals in the words or to the Effect following That is to say This Day was published Number 1. of Miltons Paradise
Lost, A Poem: in twelve Books, with Notes Etymological, Critical, Classical, and Explanatory Collected from Dr Bentley, Dr Pearse, the
present Bishop of Bangor, Richardson and Son; Addison Paterson Newton and other Authors intended as a Key to this Divine Poem,
whereby persons unaquainted with the Learned Languages and polite Literature, will be introduced into a familiar Acquaintance with the
Various Beauties and Excellencies of this Master piece of Heroick poetry Dedicated to the King by John Marchant Gent. Author of the
Exposition of the Old and New Testament &c.
Conditions 1. That this Work will be printed in Twelves on an Elziver Letter, and fine
paper, And be contained in Sixteen Numbers, at Three-pence each Stitched in blue Covers, the whole to make two Neat pocket volumes. II.
The first Number was published on Wednesday the 30th. of October 1751; And will be continued every Wednesday till the whole is
completed. III. That a Compleat set of Cuts, curiously engraved by some of the best hands, will be delivered in the course of the publication,
gratis, which will be a Great Ornament to the Work. IV. That in order to encourage People to be Subscribers to this Cheap and valuable
Work, whatever the same shall make over the Sixteen Numbers (each of them to contain 48 pages besides the cuts) the overplus to be given
gratis. V. That no money is required or expected but on the Delivery of the Numbers. All persons on giving notive to my printer and
publisher R: Walker in the Little Old Bailey London, or to any of the venders of News papers, or of Books and pamphlets, may be assured
of being regularly Served with the numbers as they are published at their own Houses or where they shall Appoint N. B. also to be had of the
person who delivers these proposals. And your Orators expressly Charge that in pursuance of and agreeable to the said Advertisements and
proposals they the said Robert Walker and John Marchant have at several times within the space of Six Months last past in a fraudulent
Manner upon Account of the said Confederates some or one of them And not upon Account of your Orators or any of them or of any other
person or persons claiming or pretending any right or legal Authority so to do printed or caused or procured to be printed in Great Britain or
in parts beyond the Seas Several thousands or other great Quantities of Copies of the said Poem entituled Paradise Lost Composed and
Written by the said John Milton and of the said Index and Life of the said John Milton composed and written by the said Elija Fenton And of
the said Annotations Comments Various Readings and Amendments made and written by the said Doctor Bentley And of the Notes
Corrections Indexes and Glossarys composed and written by the said Doctor Newton which said Poem Life Indexes Annotations Comments
Various Readings Amendments Notes corrections and Glossaryes Aforesaid Your Orators expressely Charge are now legally and rightfully
vested in your Orators as aforesaid And the said Confederates or some or one of them have or hath imported or caused to be imported from
some part or parts beyond the Seas diverse great Quantities thereof And they some or one of them have by themselves or their Servants or
Agents received and had and now have in their some or one of their custody or power Several thousands of the said Surreptitious Copies so
by them some or one of them printed or caused to be printed or imported as aforesaid And have published the same or some part thereof (in
Numbers Books or parcells) and have taken in Subscriptions for and have sold and Delivered or caused to be sold and delivered to
Subscribers and others several thousand Surreptitious Copies of the said Poem Life and Index Annotations Comments Various Readings
Amendments Notes corrections and Glossarys or some part or parts thereof and have Contracted or offered to Sell great Quantities thereof
and threaten to proceed and actually are preoceeding in the same manner to print import publish and deliver to the said Subscribers and
others the Remainder of the said Poem Life indexes Annotations Comments various Readings Notes Corrections and Glossaryes so vested in
and belonging to your Orators as aforesaid Altho' they the said Confederates well know that the same or any part thereof has not been nor is
printed or caused to be printed by or with the Order Allowance or Consent of Your Orators or any of them or any of the said persons under
whom your Orators respectively claim as aforesaid And upon that Consideration the said Confederates some or one of them have or hath
employed divers persons to your Orators unknown in a private and clandestine way to procure the said Poem Life Indexes Annotations
Comments various Readings Amendments Notes Corrections and Glossarys or some part or parts thereof to be printed imported and sold
which has been sometimes done in the names of such other persons and sometimes of the said Confederates some or one of them and
sometimes also in false and fictitious names but allways to and for the use and Account of them the said Confederates who have agreed to
share the profits thereof and are or were or did contract to become Copartners in the said Illicit Trade and have got and acquired great Sums
of Money thereby And the said Confederates being at little more charge or expence than that of Paper and print and the better to colour this
their unjust proceeding the said Confederates sometimes pretend and give out in Speeches that they have good right and Authority to print
import publish and sell the said Poem Life Indexes Annotations Comments various readings Amendments Notes corrections and Glossaryes
in such sort manner and form as they the said Confederates shall think fitt for that they have purchased a Lycence so to do from your Orators
some or one of them or some other person or persons who is or are or pretend to be proprietors of the said Works but refuse to discover the
name or names of the person or persons from whom they pretend such Licence was purchased Whereas your Orators expressly charge that
the said Confederates never had any such Licence granted them by any persons or persons [sic] whatsoever and if any such they have Your
Orators humbly insist the same is insufficient not being granted by all the said proprietors But at other times when the said Confederates
have been called upon to produce and shew to your Orators such Licence if any they had the said Confederates have changed their pretence
and given out in Speeches that the said work printed or imported and published or intended to be printed imported or published by them the
said Confederates is not the work so vested in your Orators as aforesaid Whereas in Truth and in fact they are the same or part of the same
(as may Appear upon View and Comparrison thereof) without any Addition Improvement alteration or difference whatsoever or if they
differ at all it is only in the Title page or in some other mintute [sic] and inconsiderable particulars or Circumstances which was and is only
y Contrivance to elude your Orators Right or else by negligent mistakes and Errors in the careless and false printing thereof or else in the
unskillfull drawing or graving the prints or Cutts belonging to the said Surreptitious Impression made by or for the said Confederates which
prints or Cutts your Orators expressly charge are copied from the said Original prints or Cutts which your Orators or those under whom they
Claim did at a very great Expence cause or procure to be designed and engraved by the Best Masters in Order to Adorn and Compleat the
Impression of the said Poem published by them And altho' the said Confederates well know that your Orators have no other way then by
Sale of the said Poem Life Indexes Annotations Comments Various Readings Amendments Notes Corrections and Glossarys and of the said
Prints or Cutts and other Improvements by them printed and published or to be printed and published to reimburse themselves the great
Sums of Money which they your Orators or those under whom they respectively Claim have paid and expended for the original Copies and
Manuscripts thereof and in and about the Printing reprinting publishing and vending the same Yet they the said Confederates threaten that in
order to prevent the said sale by your Orators they the said Confederates will sell the the said surreptitious Impressions made or to be made
by or for themselves at a much lower price than the genuine Impressions have usually been sold for or can reasonably be afforded at by your
Orators And your Orators expressly charge that the better to enable themselves to sell the said surreptitious Impressions at such lower price
the said Confederates do print or cause the same to be printed on a bad paper with old and worn out Types and in a hasty incorrect manner
Whereas your Orators have always at a very large expence employed the best paper and materials in the said Impressions made by them and
employed proper and skilful Persons to supervise and Correct the Errors of the Press And although some of the said Confederates (when
applied to to know by and under what Right Title or Authority they take upon themselves to print import publish and sell the said
surreptitious Imrpessions of the said Poem Life Index and other Additions Amendments and Improvements aforementioned and to request
them to forbear doing so for the future) have been brought to admit and confess that they had not any particular right or title to print import
publish or sell the same or any part thereof yet the said Confederates have at such time pretended that they aswell as every other person and
persons whatsoever had a general Right to print import and publish any Book Poem or Work whatsoever And that the Authors or Compilers
of such Books Poems or Works could not by any Deed or Deeds give or grant to any Person or Persons any exclusive Priviledge to print
publish and sell the same And that if any such Priviledge was or could be conveyed to your Orators in relation to the said Poem intitled
Paradise lost the Index thereto and the said life of the said John Milton and to the other Additions Amendments and Improvements
abovementioned they the said Confederates had no Notice thereof and therefore were not nor could be concluded thereby Whereas your
Orators humbly insist that the said John Milton Thomas Tickell Elijah Fenton Doctor Bentley and Doctor Newton had an absolute Right and
Property in the Fruits of their own Genius Learning and Application and had power and Authority for good and valuable Considerations to
assign and Convey such right and Property to your Orators or those persons under whom your Orators claim as aforesaid And so it has
always been understood (and no body has ever attempted to print reprint import Publish or sell any Impression of the sadi Poem intitled
Paradise lost with the said Index Life of the said John Milton additions amendments and improvements aforesaid but your Orators or those
under whom they claim as aforesaid until the Usurpation of the said Confederates upon your Orators right) And your Orators charge that the
said Entries made from time to time in the Register Books of the said Company of Stationers of the several Rights and Properties of your
Orators and those under whom they respectively claim as aforesaid of in and to the said Poem Life Index Additions Amendments and
Improvements was and is a proper and sufficient Notice of such rights and Properties respectively and a full and total barr and exclusion to
any other person or persons from invading the said respective Rights and Properties so rightfully vested and solemnly claimed and published
as aforesaid And your Orators humbly insist that they ought in Justice and Equity to have a satisfaction and Compensation made them by the
said Confederates for the violation and Injury by them committed upon your Orators said Right and Property And that your Orators ought
for the future to be quieted and secured in the full and peaceable possession and enjoyment thereof And the said Confederates and all and
every other person and persons totally restrained and excluded from Printing reprinting importing published or vending the said several
Works so legally vested in your Orators as aforesaid without which Restriction and exclusion the Right which your Orators claim by virtue
of and under fair and bona fide Purchases made for good and valueable Considerations will be defeated or rendred useless and unprofitable
to the utter Ruin of your Orators and their Families and the discouragement of Learning in these Kingdoms In tender Consideration whereof
and for that your Orators are utterly remediless in the Premises at and by the strict Rules of the Common Law your Orators Witnesses who
could prove all and singular the Matters aforesaid to be as they are herein before charged being either Dead or gone into Parts beyond the
seas or to places remote and unknown to your Orators And for that your Orators can only in a Court of Equity obtain a Discovery of the
secret transactions of the said Confederates in the Premises upon Oath and compel them to come to an Account with your Orators for the
profits that have accrewed to them by the Printing importing publishing and vending of the said works to vested in your Orators as aforesaid
or obtain an Injunction for quietting your Orators in the future possession of their said undoubted Rights and Properties To the Enf therefore
that the said Robert Walker John Marchant and the rest of the Confederates when discovered may upon their several and respective corporal
Oaths true full and perfect Answer make to the best of their knowledge remembrance information and belief to all and every the matters and
things hereinbefore mentioned and setforth as fully and effectually as if the same were herein again repeated and particularly interrogated
And more particularly that the said Robert Walker John Marchant and the rest of the Confederates may severally answer setforth and
discover whether as they know have heard been informed and believe your Orators or any and which of them is or are not possessed of and
intitled unto the Copy or Manuscript of the said Poem entitled Paradise lost composed and written by the said John Milton And the Copy or
Manuscript of the Index or Table of Contents of the said Poem and the Copy or Manuscript of the Life of the said John Milton composed
and written by the said Elijah Fenton And also the Copy or Manuscript of the said Annotations Comments various Readings and
amendments composed and written by the said Doctor Bentley And also the Copy or Manuscript of the said Life or Lives Indexes Notes
Corrections Glossaries and Preface composed and written by the said Doctor Newton or of or to any and which of the said Copies or
Manuscripts by virtue of and under the said several Deeds and Assignments or any and which of them and whether such Deeds and
Assignments or any and which of them were not from time to time soon after they were respectively executed or at any other and what times
respectively entred in the publick Register Books of the said Company of Stationers as aforesaid And whether they the said Confederates or
any and which of them or any other and what Person or Persons by name have or claim or pretend to have or claim any right or title in or to
the said several Copies or any and which of them or to any and what part or parts of any and which of them And by and under what Deed or
Deeds Assignment or Assignments or any other and what Licence or Authority they have or claim or pretend to have a right or power to
print reprint or import publish vend or sell any Impressions of the said Copies or any and which of them ^or any part or parts of any and
which of them^ And may produce such Deed or Deeds Assignment ^or Assignments^ Licence or Authority (if any) for your Orators Perusal
and Inspection and may setforth what sum or sums of money or any others and what Consideratiosn was or were truly and bona fide paid or
given for the same respectively And whether such Deed or Deeds Assignment or Assignments Licence or Authority (if any) under which the
said Confederates or any of them claim or pretend to claim was or were executed by the Parties purported to have executed the same and at
the time or times on which the same respectively purport to bear date or at any other and what time or times respectively And whether they
the said Confederates or any and which of them or any and which of the Persons under whom they respectively claim any right or property
in or to the said Copies or any of them have or hath at any time or times and when made or caused to be made any entry or Entries of such
their pretended right or of any Assignment or Conveyance thereof in the Register Books of the said Company of Stationers And that the said
Confederates may setforth and discover whether as they know have heard or beleive your Orators and the several Persons under whom they
derive their Title as aforesaid or any and which of them have not from time to time since the first printing of the said Poem Life Indexes
Prefaces Annotations Comments various Readings Notes Corrections and Glossaries respectively constantly printed reprinted published and
sold the same respectively And whether any other Person or Persons and who by name have at any time or times and when and under what
Right Colour or Pretence presumed or attempted to print reprint import publish sell or expose to sale any Impressions of the said Copies or
any and which of them or any part or parts of them any and which of them And may also setforth and discover whether they the said
Confederates or any and which of them by themselves or their Servants Workmen Hawkers or Agents have not within these three months
last past or for any other and what time or in what Town City Place or House in Great Britain printed or reprinted or caused to be printed or
reprinted as aforesaid or imported or caused to be imported from any and what Towns and Places beyond the Seas as aforesaid or bought of
or from any and what Person or Persons who actually printed or imported or caused the same to be printed or imported any or what Number
or Quantities of Impressions or Copies of the said Poem Prefaces Life Indexes Annotations Comments various Readings Amendments Notes
Corrections Glossaries or of any and which of them or of any and what part or parts of any and which of them (other than those actually
printed published and sold by or for you Orators) or those under whom they claim some or one of them (their some or one of their Agents
Servants or Customers) and by with or under what Name or Names Title or Titles title pages or Descriptions And also that each of them the
said Confederates may setforth and discover whether they have not for some time past and how long known or do not now know and believe
that the said Impression of the said Poem Life Index Additions and Amendments made published and vended by or for the said Confederates
some or one of them was so made bought printed reprinted imported published or sold without the Order Licence or Consent of your Orators
And whether the said Impression does in any and what particulars vary from the said Impression made published and sold by our Orators
And may setforth whether the said Impression made published and sold by your Orators is not sold by them at a moderate and reasonable
Price And whether the same does any thing and how much exceed the Price at which the said surreptitious Impressions is sold by the said
Confederates And whether such Difference (if any) is unreasonable considering the large Sums laid out and expended by your Orators or
those under whom they Claim for the original Copies of them purchased as aforesaid and in and about the designing and graving the Prints
or Cutts belonging to the said Impression sold by your Orators and also considering the difference of Paper Types and Correctness And that
the said Confederates and each of them may come to an Account with your Orators for the profits by them respectively made from or by the
Printing reprinting importing publishing and selling the said Poem Life Index Additions Amendments Improvements or any part or parts
thereof And for that purpose may setforth all Entries Minutes and Memorandums by them respectively made in any Book or Paper of
touching or concerning the Numbers Quantities Prices or other Particulars of the Purchase Importation Impression Publication or Sale of the
said Works or any of them or any part or parts of them or any of them And that they the said Confederates and each and every of them their
and each and every of their Agents Workmen and Servants and all and every other person and persons whatsoever who by Order and
Direction or under and in Trust for the said Confederates or any of them already have printed reprinted imported published sold exposed to
sale bartered or delivered or at any time or times hereafter shall presume or attempt to print reprint import publish sell expose to sale barter
or deliver to Subscribers or others the said surreptitious Impression of the said Poem entituled Paradise lost and of the said Index thereto and
of the life of the said John Milton written by the said Elijah Fenton and other Additions Amendments and Improvements above mentioned
or any part or parcel quantity or quantities of the said surreptitious Impression or any other surreptitious Impression of the said Poem Index
Life Additions Amendments and Improvements without the Licence Authority and Consent of your Orators may be enjoined and restrained
by the Injunction of this honourable Court from printing reprinting importing publishing Selling bartering exposing to Sale delivering or
distributing to Subscribers or others the said surreptitious Impression or any part thereof or any other Impression whatsoever of the said
Poem Life Index Additions Amendments and Improvements so rightfully vested in your Orators as aforesaid under any Name title title page
or description whatsoever either in Volumes Books Pamphlets parcels Numbers or Sheets or otherwise howsoever without the Licence
Order Consent or Authority of your Orators for that purpose first had and obtained And that your Orators may have and obtain such further
and other releif in the premises as to your Lordship shall seem meet May it please your Lordship the Premises considered to grant unto your
Orators aswell his Majesty's Writ of Injunction to be directed to the said Robert Walker and John Marchant and all and every their Agents
Workmen and Servants thereby commanding and enjoining them and each of them under a certain Pain therein to be expressed to desist
from Printing reprinting importing publshing selling and exposing to sale or disposing of the said Poem ^entitled Paradise lost and of the
said^ Lives Prefaces Indexes Annotations Comments various Readings Amendments Notes Corrections and Glossaries ^and other the
premises^ As also his Majestys most gracious Writt or Writts or Subpena to be directed to the said Robert Walker and John Marchant and
other their Confederates when discovered thereby commanding them and each and every of them at a certain day and under a certain Pain
therein to be limitted personally to be and appear before your Lordship in this honourable Court then and there to answer all and singular the
premises And further to stand to perform and abide such Order Direction and Decree therein as to your Lordship shall seem meet And your
Orators shall every pray &c./.

                                                                                                                              William Whitaker



    

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