Richard Grafton

[1] With Edward Whitchurch, a member of the Haberdashers' Company, Grafton was interested in the printing of the Bible in English, and eventually they became printers and publishers, more by chance than by design.

On the accession of Edward VI, Grafton was appointed King's Printer and this gave him the sole right to print all Acts and Statutes.

He had held the appointment for six years, when on the King's death, he printed a proclamation of the accession of Lady Jane Grey, in which he signed himself "Printer to the Queen."

He died in 1573, probably in late April or early May, and was buried on 14 May in Christ Church Greyfriars in London,[1] leaving four sons and one daughter, Joan, who married the printer Richard Tottel.

Grafton's device was a tree bearing grafts issuing from a tun or barrel of the kind in which books were packed for transport – hence "graft-tun", an example of a rebus.