John Playford

PLAYFORD, John. b. Norwich, 1622/23; d. London, between 24 December 1686 and 7 February 1687. He became a London publisher and bookseller. He was apprenticed to the stationer John Benson in 1639/40 for seven years. On completion of his apprenticeship he became a member of the Yeomanry of the Stationers’ Company, which entitled him to trade as a publisher. He thereupon obtained the tenancy of a shop in or near the porch of the Temple Church, from which all his publications were issued. His earliest publications were royalist political tracts (which led in 1649 to a warrant for his arrest), but in 1651 he brought out a manual on country dancing, with tunes, entitled The English Dancing...