John Rastell, Sr.,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rastell

http://books.google.com/books?id=-rs8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq...

John Rastell (c. 1475–1536) was a dramatist, barrister, member of parliament, crown servant, pageant-maker, New World venturer, briefly a coroner, and among the first of the English printers. Born in Coventry, he was brother-in-law to Sir Thomas More, and father-in-law of the playwright John Heywood. His son, William Rastell, was also a printer and would publish many of Heywood's plays in the early 1530s. Rastell enjoyed a variety of careers in a dramatic life which included a failed attempt to sail to America, the establishment of one of the earliest printing presses in London, and a late conversion to Protestantism. His conversion alienated him from the More circle to whom he was tied by both blood and belief. He died in debt and out of favour, while imprisoned for unknown reasons. http://www.blackwellreference.com/public/tocnode?id=g9781405194495_...