Stationers' Company
Less than a month after the raid on his premises, Wolfe surrendered to his adversaries. On 11 June 1583, the Court of Aldermen decreed that Wolfe be transferred from the Fishmongers' to the Stationers' Company. The transfer was made official on 1 July; Wolfe, having "accknowledged his error", was "lovingly receved into the companie".
Despite this move, Wolfe continued his penchant for piracy, and began pirating Day's lucrative metrical psalters. His former master, on discovering Wolfe's roguery, led a raid on Wolfe's premises and confiscated printing materials. Wolfe challenged the raid in the Court of Star Chamber: on 18 May 1584, he issued a bill of complaint accusing Day of illegally damaging his property. He painted a dramatic picture in his testimony; according to Wolfe, Day's men were "wrestinge his poore oulde father by the throate beatinge and threatnynge his men and spoyled and took awaye wythe them prynted bookes and dyverse other gooddes". Day countered with a demurrer, disputing Wolfe's account. The search, according to Day, was lawful and conducted "in peaceable manner and wise, withoute any weapons at all". The Star Chamber appears to have taken no action, possibly due to Day's demurrer.
Within a month of Wolfe's complaint, Day was dead. His printing patent for the metrical psalter passed to his son, Richard Day. In an effort to make amends, Richard Day appointed Wolfe as one of five assigns to administer the patent. Between 1585 and 1591, Wolfe was the sole printer of metrical psalters for Day. On 23 July 1587, Wolfe was appointed Beadle of the Stationers' Company. Wolfe now found himself in a position of power, and he approached his new role with gusto. While ostensibly, the office of Beadle entailed the maintenance of Stationers' Hall and the summoning of members to company meetings, Wolfe used his title to pursue and stamp out illicit printing. It was a remarkable transformation for a man who had so openly agitated the authorities earlier in the decade. He apparently held no qualms about tracking down his former "confederates". On 16 April 1588, he led a raid on the premises of one of these former colleagues, Robert Waldegrave; the raid and the resulting seizure of Waldegrave's copies of John Udall's State of the Church of Englande earned Wolfe more scorn from contemporaries and yet another comparison with the wily Machiavelli—Martin Marprelate referred to him as "alias Machivill...most tormenting executioner of Waldegrave's goods" in his 1588 work Oh Read Over D. John Bridges, for it is a Worthy Worke. Wolfe soon became an invaluable asset in the Stationers' Company's fight against illegal printing; he served as a legal assistant in several cases the Stationers' brought against other printers.
By 1593, Wolfe had been appointed London's City Printer. Around this time, Wolfe made the transition from printer to publisher, distributing increasing amounts of work for others to print on his behalf. John Windet, who succeeded Wolfe as City Printer, was responsible for most of Wolfe's output after 1593. Wolfe died in early 1601, and on 6 April 1601, Windet was appointed administrator of his estate. Wolfe's widow, Alice, sold many of his copyrights to other stationers.
Read more about this topic: John Wolfe (printer)
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