Elisabeth Pickering

Elisabeth Pickering
Born	1510
Died	1562
Burial place	St Dunstan-in-the-West Churchyard, London, England
Occupation	Printer

Elisabeth Pickering (c. 1510–1562) was an English printer, the first woman in England to print books under her own family name.[1]

Biography

Colophon from The Great Charter, Called in Latin Magna Carta, London: Elizabeth Pickering, 1540/41

Elisabeth Pickering is reputed by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography to being the first English woman to print books under her birth name; James Raven asserts that "as early as 1527-8 a widow is recorded as printing in York", and terms Pickering as 'the best-known early press woman'.[2]

Elisabeth Pickering was the wife and, on his death in October 1540, widow, of Robert Redman, a printer of law books in London from 1525 until his death. Thirteen editions of Redman's books were printed, eleven under Pickering's name, within nine-months of his death, including an edition of Magna Carta.[3] Thereafter she sold the printing business to William Middleton.[1]

Elisabeth Pickering was married four times; to a Mr. Jackson, with issue Lucy and Elizabeth, prior to her marriage in 1537[2] to Redman, with issue Alice and Matilda. After Redman's death she married William Cholmeley, a lawyer who may, according to the ODNB have been involved in a 1542 attempt by the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers to be incorporated in London. After William's death she married his relation Ranulph Cholmeley, who from 1553 to 1563 was Recorder of London and thereafter Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. This Cholmeley was responsible for the successful incorporation of the Stationers, and the ODNB suggests that Elisabeth's interest in the matter was related to both Cholmeley's actions.[1]

Elisabeth Pickering died in October 1562.[1] She is buried in St. Dunstan-in-the-West Churchyard in London, England.

See also

• List of women printers and publishers before 1800

References

1. Gillespie, Alexandra. "Redman, Robert (d. 1540), printer. Also including Elisabeth Pickering (c.1510–1562)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/69150. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
2. Raven, James (22 August 2007). The Business of Books: Booksellers and the English Book Trade 1450-1850. Yale University Press. p. 38. ISBN 9780300122619.
3. "The great Charter called i[n] Latyn Magna Carta : with diuers olde statutes whose titles appere in the next leafe Newly correctyd ... London: Elizabeth Pickering (Redman), 1541. Beale S11; STC 9272". University of Minnesota Law Library. Archived from the original on 22 September 2015. Retrieved 25 October 2016.

Further reading

• Kreps, Barbara (2003). "Elizabeth Pickering: The First Woman to Print Law Books in England and Relations Within the Community of Tudor London's Printers and Lawyers". Renaissance Quarterly. 56 (4)): 1053–1088. doi:10.2307/1261979. JSTOR 1261979.