Atkyns, Richard

, a typographical author, born in Gloucestershire, in 1615; studied at Baliol college, Oxford, in 1629, where he was a gentleman commoner, and removed afterwards to Lincoln’s inn. He visited France with a young nobleman, and at his return frequented the court but the civil wars breaking out, he suffered much on account of his loyalty. After the restoration he was a deputy-lieutenant of Gloucestershire. Having been at the expence of above a thousand pounds in law-suits for near twenty-four years, to prove the right of the king’s grant in printing law books, he had some hopes of repairing his finances by his pen and published his “Original and growth of Printing in England,” 4to, 1664. Five years after he published his “Vindication,” &c. containing a relation of several passages in the western wars of England, wherein he was concerned. To which are added his “Sighs and Ejaculations,” 4to, 1669. He was married, but it seems unfortunately, for it is said, that it proved his ruin towards the end of his days. He died a prisoner, for debt, in the Marshalsea, Sept. 14, 1677, and was buried in St. George’s, Southwark, at the expence of baron Atkyns, to whom he was related. ²

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