WILLIAM

See also:

• RASTELL (or RASTALL), JOHN (d. 1536)
• WILLIAM RASTELL (c. 1508-1565)

RASTELL (c. 1508-1565)  , English printer and judge, son of the preceding, was born'in London about 1508 . At the age of seventeen he went to the university of Oxford, but did not take a degree, being probably called home to super-intend his father's 'business . The first work which bears his own imprint was A Dyaloge of Sir Thomas More (1531), a reprint of the edition published by his father in 1529 . He also brought out a few law-books, some poetry, an edition of Fabyan's Cronycle (1533), and The Apologye (1533) and The Supplycacyon of Soulys of his uncle Sir Thomas More . His office was " in Fletestrete in saynt Brydys chyrche yarde." He became a student at Lincoln's Inn on 12th September 1532, and gave up the printing business two years later . In 1547 he was appointed reader . On account of his Catholic convictions he left England for Louvain; but upon the accession of Mary he returned, and was made serjeant-at-law and treasurer of Lincoln's Inn in 1555 . His patent as judge of the Queen's Bench was granted on the 27th of October 1558 . Rastell continued on the bench until 1562, when he retired to Louvain without the queen's licence . By virtue of a special commission issued by the barons of the Exchequer on the occasion an inventory of his goods and chattels was taken . It furnishes an excellent idea of the modest nature of the law library (consisting of twenty-four works) and of the chambers of an Elizabethan judge (see Law Magazine, February 1844) . He died at Louvain on the 27th of August 1565 .

It is difficult to distinguish between the books written by him and those by his father . The following are believed to be his: A Colleccion of all the Statutes (1559), A Table collected of the Yeares of the Kynges of Englande (1561), both frequently reprinted with continuations, and A Colleccion of Entrees, of Declarations, (1566), also frequently reprinted . The entries are not of Rastell's own

drawing, but have been selected from printed and MS. collections; their " pointed brevity and precision " are commended by Story . He supplied tables or indexes to several law-books, and edited La novel natura brevium de Monsieur Anton . Filzherbert (1534) and The Workes of Sir T . More in the English Tonge (1557) . He is also stated to have written a life of Sir T . More, but it has not come down to us .