On the suppression of the abbey the printing material was moved to London, where it was used for a short time by a printer, Nicholas Bourman. Now the name of the last abbot of St Alban’s was Richard Stevenage or Boreman, and it is quite probable that this Nicholas was some relative to whom the presses and type were entrusted during Herford’s absence. The device used by Bourman was almost identical with that used at St Alban’s by Herford, the initials of Richard Stevenage in the latter being replaced by N. B., and a book which had been printed in the abbey, the _Introduction to learn to reckon with the pen_, was reprinted by Bourman in 1539. The last definite date in a St Alban’s book is 1538, and, in the following year, Herford, the printer, was taken to London and presumably imprisoned or punished. The abbot was left with the printing material on his hands, which we may suppose from the occurrence of his initials in the device to have been at any rate partly his property. He therefore transferred it to London for the use of his relative until such time as Herford could resume work. This Herford did in 1544, and Bourman transferred the material back to him. After this Bourman’s name is found in no book, though he was a member of the Stationers’ Company and lived to the year 1560. The death of Henry VIII. and the accession of Edward VI. in 1547 gave a fresh impetus to printing, and presses were set up in three new towns, Ipswich, Worcester, and Canterbury. For some years previous to this no book had been printed outside London, and with the religious opinions changing from day to day, even the London printers themselves hardly knew what they might or might not issue without fear of prosecution. Numbers of persons who had fled abroad returned, and with them came an immense number of foreigners seeking refuge from their own religious persecutions abroad. As might be expected, the three new presses were mainly devoted to printing books on the religious questions then occupying the attention of the public.