34, and
at that time seems to have employed himself chiefly in furthering the
project of an English translation of the whole Bible. On the 13th August
1537, Grafton sent to Archbishop Cranmer a copy of the Bible printed
abroad. The text was a modification of Coverdale's translation
ostensibly by Thomas Mathew, but in reality by John Rogers the editor.
In 1538, Coverdale, Grafton, and Whitchurch were together in Paris, busy
upon a third edition of the Bible. In June of that year they sent two
specimens of the text to Cromwell, with a letter stating that they
followed the Hebrew text with Chaldee or Greek interpretations. The
printing was done at the press of Francis Regnault, but before many
sheets had been struck off, the University of Paris seized the press and
2000 copies of the printed sheets, while the promoters had to make a
hasty escape to this country. The presses and types were afterwards
bought by Cromwell, and the work was subsequently finished and published
in 1539. The work had an engraved title-page, ascribed to Holbein, and
the price was fixed at ten shillings per copy unbound, and twelve
shillings bound.

Before leaving Paris, Grafton and Whitchurch had issued an edition of
Coverdale's translation of the New Testament, giving as their reason
that James Nicholson of Southwark had printed a very imperfect version
of it.

In 1540 Grafton and Whitchurch printed in 'the house late the graye
freers,' _The Prymer both in Englysshe and Latin_, to be sold at the
sign of the Bible in St. Paul's Churchyard. In the same year they
printed with a prologue by Cranmer, a second edition of the Great Bible,
half of which bore the name of Grafton and half of Whitchurch, and in
all probability the subsequent editions were published in the same way.
Two very good initial letters were used in the New Testament, and seem
to have been cut especially for Whitchurch. On the 28th January 1543-44
Grafton and Whitchurch received an exclusive patent for printing church
service books (Rymer, _Foedera_, xiv. 766), and a few years later they
are found with an exclusive right for printing primers in Latin and
English. Upon the accession of Edward VI. Grafton became the royal
printer, but upon the king's death he printed the proclamation of Lady
Jane Grey, and was for that reason deprived of his office by Queen Mary.
The remainder of his life he spent in the compilation of English
_Chronicles_ in keen rivalry with John Stow.

Richard G