STOW, JOHN (c. 1525-1605), English historian and anti quary, was the son of Thomas Stow, a tailor, and was born about 1525 in London, in the parish of St. Michael, Cornhill. He learned the trade of his father, but possibly did not practise it much after he grew up. In 1549 he "kept house" near the well within Aldgate, but afterwards he removed to Lime Street ward, where he resided till his death. About 156o he made the acquaint ance of the leading antiquaries of his time, including William Camden, and in 1561 he published his first work, The woorkes of Geffrey Chaucer, newly printed with divers additions whiche were never in printe before. This was followed in 1565 by his Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles, which was frequently reprinted, with slight variations, during his lifetime. In 1580 Stow pub lished his Annales, or a Generale Chronicle of England from Brute until the present yeare of Christ 1580.
Through the patronage of Archbishop Parker, Stow was enabled to print the Flores historiarum of Matthew of Westminster in 1567, the Chronicle of Matthew Paris in 1571, and the Historia brevis of Thomas Walsingham in 1574. At the request of Parker he had himself compiled a "farre larger volume," An history of this island, but the manuscript is lost. Stow remained poor all his life, and was authorized by James I. to appeal for alms in He died on April 6, 1605, and was buried in the church of St. Andrew Undershaft, where is his monument.
A number of Stow's manuscripts are in the Harleian collec tion in the British Museum. Some are in the Lambeth library (No. 3o6) ; and from the volume which includes them were pub lished by the Camden Society, edited by James Gairdner, Three Fifteenth-Century Chronicles, with Historical Memoranda by John Stowe the Antiquary, and Contemporary Notes of Occur rences written by him (188o).
Of the many editions of Stow's Survey of London, see that with notes by C. L. Kingsford (Oxford, 1908).