Field, Richard (1561-1624), printer

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Field was born in Stratford upon Avon. He was apprenticed to George Bishop in 1579 but spent the majority of his apprenticeship serving the Huguenot printer, Thomas Vautrollier. Field was freed by Bishop in 1587. He hired the now deceased Vautrollier’s widow, Jacqueline to print his first publication. Field and Vautrollier soon wed and through this union Field inherited the substantial business of the Vautrolliers and its courtly contacts. Field printed the works of Sir John Harrington, Sir Philip Sidney, George Puttenham, and Edmund Spenser, and secured the rights to King James’s Poeticall Exercises. Yet the most famous author associated with Field is none other than William Shakespeare. Field published Shakespeare’s first printed work, Venus and Adonis (1593) and printed its following three editions as well as The Rape of Lucrece (1593). He was a respected member of the Stationers’ Company, elected first to the livery in 1598 and then the Court of Assistants in 1604. Field served as Upper-warden in 1613 and was elected Master twice, in 1619 and 1622. His former apprentice George Miller inherited the business after Field’s death.

Birth: Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire

Printer (1587-1624); Assistant (1604-1624); Upper-warden (1613-1614); Master (1619-1620, 1622-1623)

Henry Field (father), tanner; Ursula Field (mother); Jasper Field (brother), printer; Jacqueline Vautrollier (wife), printer; Henry Field (son), freed by patrimony

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography