182 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



gives only one, and says it occurred in the London edition. It was sufficient, 

 however, apparently, to enable the objecting booksellers to make a complaint 

 to the Lords Justices and Council on the subject, and all the Testaments were 

 seized (in sheets, Somervell said, as, presumably, not bound), and were retained 

 by the Clerk of the Council. Somervell also and his two co-partners were 

 taken into custody. 



Somervell then states that these booksellers were trying to have the books 

 condemned, which, if effected, would occasion him mucli loss, etc. He offered 

 good security to amend any errors in the Testaments, not to sell them till 

 approved of by some divine chosen by the Council, and to sell them 40 per 

 cent, less than imported. He protested that he would not print any Eoman 

 Catholic book, though the hostile booksellers charged him therewith, the 

 better to obstruct his good intention to try and bring piinting to perfection 

 in Ireland, and to sell books cheaper than before. 



As a further instance of the booksellers' persistent malice against him, 

 Somervell states that they had obtained an order from the Lords Justices to 

 stop in the Customs some type imported from Holland for John Brocas (a 

 Dublin printer of that time), solely because such type was consigned to him 

 (Somervell) and James King, and the latter was not "permitted to an entry" 

 till the pleasure of the Lords Justices was known. 



The incident is one of interest in all its details — the effort to promote and 

 improve local printing, the source whence types were obtained, the names of 

 the booksellers and the printers, and the jealous action of portion of the trade 

 to injure a fellow-tradesman under cover of religious zeal of a party character; 

 but it is of interest mainly to establish the fact that the English New 

 Testament (Authorized Version) was actually printed here in 1698. though 

 suppressed before being publicly sold. 



The early records of the Irish Privy Council, etc., having been destroyed 

 by fire in 1711, it is impossible to ascertain what was done eventually with 

 the seized New Testament ; but as no copy is extant or recorded, it must be 

 assumed that the booksellers were successful, and that Somervell's petition 

 was rejected and all the sheets of the New Testament destroyed. 



