On one of his journeys, presumably to sell books, Gerard Wandsforth was taken ill at King’s Lynn in Norfolk. There on October 3, 1510, immediately before his death, he executed his will. He described himself as a stationer of York, and desired to be buried within the church of St Margaret before the chapel of the Holy Trinity at Lynn. He adds the clause, “Also I require for the love of Jhesu Christ for to be a brother of the Trinity guild kept there, and to pay therfor as the custom of the guild requireth.” To his brother, Frederick, and his brother’s son, Valentine (there is no mention of Edward), he leaves legacies. Then follows, “To Richard Watterson of London xl. s., to the which Richard, Mr Wynkyn de Word, can inform you. Item I giff to the said Mr Wynkyn xl. s., which I howght him.” The executors were his brother Frederick, Ralph Pulleyn, a goldsmith of York, and Mr Maynard Weywik of London. The will was proved at York on October 24. As there is no mention of wife or children, we may presume he was unmarried. The bequests to Richard Waterson and Wynkyn de Worde are interesting. We do not know at present of any Richard Waterson, a stationer in London, but a Henry Watson, and the names are easily confused, was at the time an apprentice to W. de Worde, and we have a reference to another book not now known, printed at London by Hugo Goes, who printed later at York, and Henry Watson. The coincidence of names, though it may not mean anything, is certainly curious. From his owing money to De Worde we may presume he obtained stock from him, and we find all the York printers and stationers had dealings of one sort or another with De Worde. Ralph Pulleyn, the goldsmith, seems to have acted towards Wandsforth as Fust did to the first printer Gutenberg, advancing money to assist him in trade. The third executor, Mr Mayner Weywik, is passed over without notice by Davies in the account of the will in the _History of the York Press_, but his connexion is fairly easily explained. In the lists of persons admitted to the freedom of York in 1529-30 is a stationer, Johannes Warwyke, son of Edward Warwyke, merchant. Thus the Warwyke family were connected with York and also with the business of a stationer. Mr Mayner Warwyke, who was like Ralph Pulleyn, a partner with Wandsforth, appears to have renounced his executorship and sold his share in the business to Pulleyn. Probably as he lived in London he did not see his way, after Wandsforth’s death, to continuing in the business at York. Shortly after the proving of the will in October 1510, probably at the beginning of 1511, a suit was brought by Frederick Wandsforth against his co-executor, Ralph Pulleyn, and the evidence brought forward throws a considerable amount of light on the early York book trade. The following abstract of the proceedings is given by Davies.