Robert Bowes

“ LEGATE, JOHN (d. 1620?) , printer to Cambridge University, was admitted and sworn a freeman of the Stationers' Company on 11 April 1586 (Arber, ii. 696) . He was appointed printer to the university of Cambridge by grace, on 2 Nov. 1588, as ‘he is reported to be skilful in the art of printing books.’ On 26 April 1589 he received as an apprentice Cantrell Legge, afterwards also university printer and his immediate successor in the conduct of the press at Cambridge. From 1590 to 1609 he appeared in the parish books of St. Mary the Great, Cambridge, as paying 5s. a year for the rent of a shop. ”

“ By the help of their chancellor the rights of the university and of their printer were successfully defended, and in 1597 an entry in the ‘Stationers' Registers’ (ib. iii. 88) shows that the stationers acknowledged Legate's right to copyright protection for a book printed by the authority of the vice-chancellor, ‘so that none of this company shall prynt yt from hym.’ Legate had the exclusive right to print the Latin dictionary of Thomas Thomas, his predecessor as university printer, a right renewed to his children after his death, and he also printed most of the books of William Perkins. ”

“ In 1609 he was elected churchwarden, and paid a fine of 10s. for his ‘dismission.’ The respective rights of the Company of Stationers and of the university were at this time not well defined, and there were frequent differences between them. ”