Contains the following Acts and commentaries (mostly print):

• Appendix to A Decree of Starre-Chamber Concerning Printing made the eleventh Day of July last past, 1637

• Act against Unlicensed and Scandalous Books and Pamphlets, and for better Regulating of Printing, 1649

• An act for preventing the frequent abuses in printing seditious, treasonable, and unlicensed books and pamphlets, 1662

• An act for preventing the frequent abuses in printing seditious, treasonable, and unlicensed books and pamphlets, 1685

• An act for the encouragement of learning, by vesting the copies of printed books in the authors or purchasers of such copies, during the times therein mentioned, 1708 (printed 1718)

• An act to amend the law of copyright, 1842

• Stamp Acts, 1757 and 1765

• Restraint against co-printing law books (manuscript, no date)

• A Letter To a Member of Parliament, Shewing, that a Restraint On the Press Is inconsistent with the Protestant Religion, and dangerous to te Liberties of the Nation, 1698 - anonymously authored tract, now variously attributed to Daniel Defoe and Matthew Tindal

• Further Reasons Humbly Offered... for making more effectual... An Act for the Encouragement of Learning - argument advanced on the Stationers' side in the Battle of the Booksellers

• A Bill for making more effectual... An act to enable to commissioners of His Majesty's stamp duties, 1735

• Legal Deposit Act, 1775 (two copies)

• An Act to enable to commissioners of His Majesty's stamp duties to stamp the paper of newspapers, 1794

• An Act for repealing the Duties on Paper, 1794

• An act from granting Samuel Buckley the sole liberty of printing and reprinting the histories of Thuanus, 1733

• Acts for prohibiting the Importation of Books re-printed Abroad, 1739 and 1746

• An Act for the further Encouragement of Learning, 1801

• Copyright Bill, 1881

Entries of copies are dated 7 Apr 1687-21 Nov 1695; information given includes name of property owner, name of person/s under whose hand/s the copy is entered, title of work, name of author, amount paid (usually 6d per title) and signature of property owner; there are a few cross references in the margins to entries elsewhere in the volume.

Front cover reads 'The Wast Register booke for entring of Coppies begun the vii th day of Aprill 1687'.

On the inside cover is a pencil note in a 20th century hand: 'These are the Original Entries. Those in the large volume 'Coppies' 1682 are copied in', and beside it in a contemporary hand, 'Jos Younge' and 'Younge'; on reverse of front fly leaf is a note in biro: 'See Court minute of 4 April 1687'.

At the rear of the volume (pages 252-257) are six pages of memoranda principally relating to caveats restricting the entering of specified works, 4 Aug 1684-12 Apr 1695. Memoranda predating the use of this volume for entries of copies appear to have been copied from entries in earlier volumes.

Myers notes: 'The Court ordered, 4 April 1687, that a Wast Entry Book be kept; it ceased to be used after the Licensing Laws Lapsed, 1695.' (Myers:1990, p. 25)

William Herbert's manuscript transcriptions of the Stationers' entries of copies and apprenticeships from 1571 to 1620.

Title indices to the new sequence of copyright registers produced subsequent to the Copyright Act 1842. The registers themselves were transferred to The National Archives in 1916, pursuant to the Copyright Act 1911. The indices cover entries in volumes 1-20, and literary entries in volumes 1-53.

i: request by John Patison to enter William McEwen's Essays Doctrinal and Practical, 2 Jun 1767.

ii: notice of publication of Advice to young Gentlemen in the Several conditions of life by way of address from a Father to his Children by the Abbot Goussault Counsellor in Parliament; with his Sentiments and maxims upon what passes in civil society, undated.

iii: request by Jane Kettlewell to enter The Practical Believer, Christian Prudence, The Doctrine of the Cross and The Companion to the Penitent and Persecuted, 30 Oct 1699

iv: manuscript title page for Josiah Burchit's Memoires of Transactions at Sea during the Warr with France, 1703.

v: printed letter from John Snow to the livery regarding fees for entering copies since the 1842 Copyright Act, Dec 1877.

vi: request by John Gray to enter The Assembly's Shorter Catechism Explained, 16 Jan 1772.

vii: extract minute of the committee of directors of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge in Scotland, 3 May 1770.

viii: letter from John Ven requesting a full extract of the entry of his father-in-law Ralph Erskine's works and advice on his exclusive right to print these works, 7 Sep 1769.

ix: letter from Thomas Carnan confirming that Juvenile Trials and Patersons Travelling Dictionary were to be entered as his sole property, and that the Dictionary of the World was the property of Stanley Crowder, Benjamin Collins, Mr Carnan and Mr Newbery, 20 Dec 1771, with a note requesting to know what shares each of the latter had in the Dictionary of the World, undated [2 items].

x: manuscript summons to Joseph Greenhill requiring him to produce information on the Dictionary of Natural History, The Jacobite Songs and Ballads of Scotland and Sabbath Bells Chimed by the Poets to the Guildhall Police Court, Jul 1861.

xi: statement that Regula Accentum & Spiritum Gracorum cum Observationibus utilissimus, Gracorum Dialiecti Postica cum Regulis Profodia and Eradita Pronuntiationis Catholici Indices were to be entered, 1 Oct 1700.

xii: certificates of entry of One Hundred Years of Book Auctions, issued to celebrate the centenary of Hodgson & Co in 1907, 2-3 Jun 1908.

Copies of outgoing letters from the Company, 1912-1915 and 1920-1922, after the Copyright Act 1911 made registration at Stationers' Hall unnecessary; most letters return copyright fees, return items sent to the copyright office and/or advise regarding access to the post-1840 registers deposited at the Public Record Office; very few letters are included for 1920-1922; index at front of volume.

Press cuttings relating to copyright.

Hand-written copy of the Statute of Anne.

Company accounts for copyright business, showing amounts paid in and out; includes annual statements for 1895-1924; thumb index at front of volume.

Monthly cash accounts of Company copyright business, showing cash received and paid out.

This series contains registers of entries of copies, used to establish publishers', booksellers' and eventually authors' copyright until the introduction of automatic copyright in 1912. As there was widespread disregard of the procedure throughout the period of required registration, the registers do not contain record of all qualifying works for the period concerned.

All entries are manuscript, dated and in chronological order; the formula of entry always includes the name of the registrant, title of the work and amount paid for entry (to 1786). Names of authors and works referred to in file-level descriptions have been standardised; authors' names are in square brackets when they do not appear in the register.

Clerk's book divided into six principal sections:

folios 17r-129v: register of apprentices bound, 17 Jul 1576-25 Jul 1605.

folios 130r-318v: entries of copies, 17 Jul 1576-25 Jun 1595.

folios 319r-352r: register of freemen admitted, 14 Jan 1577-2 Jul 1605.

folios 393r-414v and 417r: fines for breaking of orders, 28 Jan 1577-28 Jun 1605.

folios 415 and 418r-420r: calls for the livery, 1 Jul 1577-30 Jun 1604.

folios 427r-486r: Court minutes and Clerk's memoranda, 1 Oct 1576-29 Dec 1603.

On the title page are two 18th or 19th century inscriptions:

Index reading:

'Apprentices to page 130

Entrys of Coppies from 130 to 318

Freemen from p 319

Book of Fines from 393 to 415

Calls on the Livery from 415 to 427

Decrees or Orders or probably the Court Book from July 1576 to November 1603. from page 427 to the End'

Inscription reading: 'The copies prior to their date, are to be found from the grant of the charter, in the old Wardens acct. book, classed distinctly under every year to 1571'.

At front of volume are memoranda and other records:

folio [1r]: [to be completed]

folio [1v]: register of those appointed to go to the Lord Mayor's feast at the Guildhall, 29 Oct 1583-29 Oct 1595.

folio 2r: memoranda by Richard Collins stating that he was chosen Clerk of the Company, 30 May 1575, and listing what he had been charged to enter into the volume, with folio numbers; details of gilt spoons, 1589; register of those appointed to go to the Lord Mayor's feast, 29 Oct Oct 1596-30 Oct 1598.

folio 2v: memorandum that the gift and legacy of John Waller had been distributed that day, 27 Jan 1587; memorandum that Mr Jones had printed a book that had been received by Warden Cawood but is not entered; register of those appointed to go to the Lord Mayor's feast, 29 Oct 1599-29 Oct 1600.

folio 3r: annual receipts of monies received for use of the hall by the wardmote and for weddings, 13 Jan 1578-10 Apr 1592.

folio 3v: receipts for monies received for use of the hall by the wardmote and for a member's wife's burial; list of books sent from Scotland to William Norton for his cousin John Norton, seized by George Bishop, taken to Stationers' Hall and then delivered away, 17 Jun 1591.

folio 4: memoranda concerning books seized

folio 5r: list of names of those appointed to search, 3 Sep 1576

folio 5v: [to be completed]

folio 6r: 'A copie of certen orders concerning printing'.

folio 6v: [to be completed]

folio 7r: Court order relating to [to be completed]

Information given in the entries of copies includes name of property owner, name of person/s under whose hand/s the copy is entered, title of work and amount paid (usually 6d per title); occasionally name of author is included. Significant entries of copies include:

folio 164v: [Edmund Spenser's] The Shepheardes Calender, entered for Hugh Singelton, 5 Dec 1579.

folio 170r: [Edmund Spenser & Gabriel Harvey's] Three Proper, and Wittie, Familiar Letters, entred for Henry Bynneman, 30 Jun 1580.

folio 231v: Sir Philip Sidney's [New] Arcadia, entered for William Ponsonby, 23 Aug 1588.

folio 251v: [Edmund Spenser's] The Faerie Queene, entered for William Ponsonby, 1 Dec 1589.

folio 262v: [Christopher Marlowe's] Tamburlaine parts 1 and 2, entered for Richard Jones, 14 Aug 1590.

folio 297v: [William Shakespeare's] Venus and Adonis, entered for Richard Feild, 18 Apr 1593

folio 299v: [Christopher Marlowe's] Edward II, entered for William Jones, 6 Jul 1593.

folio 304v: [William Shakespeare's] Titus Andronicus, entered for John Danter, 6 Feb 1594.

folio 305v: [William Shakespeare's] Henry VI part 1, entered for Thomas Millington, 12 Mar 1594.

folio 306v: [William Shakespeare's] The Taming of the Shrew, entered for Peter Shorte, 2 May 1594.

folio 309v: [William Shakespeare's] Richard III, entered for Thomas Creede, 19 Jun 1594.

folio 315v: A treatise in commendation of poetry by Sir Philip Sidney, entered for William Ponsonby, 29 Nov 1594.

Topics covered by the Court minutes include elections of the Master, Wardens, Court Assistants and Renter Wardens, Court attendance, administration of Company officials, regulation of apprentices and journeymen, disputes between members, granting or administration of charity, administration of property, and regulation of printing.

At back of volume are Renter Warden balance receipts and memoranda:

folio 486v: receipts for balances paid to the Company by the Renter Wardens, 6 May 1577-6 May 1586.

folio 487r: memoranda recording the transfer of licence to print one impression of 'Quenes Iniuntions and Artycles' from Master Barker to Thomas Purfoote, 5 Aug 1583, a payment for 'Catechismes' from Master Coldock to Master Newbery, 2 Sep 1583, and the fact that the cup given by Henry Fflycke must be entered in the book of gifts, 3 Nov 1583; receipts for balances paid to the Company by the Renter Wardens, 6 May 1587-6 May 1591.

folio 487v: note of T Cantroller's printing privileges from 1573-1574; list of items in the armoury additional to that specified in the inventory, 8 Jul 1578; receipts for balances paid to the Company by the Renter Wardens, 6 May 1592-7 May 1599.

Parties: (1) Charles Knight, bookseller and publisher (2) Joseph Bonsor, esquire.

Discussion of the application of the Act for the Encouragement of Learning [the Statute of Anne/Copyright Act 1710] to books published abroad, and financial implications for the English book trade of the importation of such books.