Crownfield retired from the office of printer in 1740 and received a pension from the university until his death in 1743. He was a bookseller as well as a printer and seems to have done some binding as well. His bookselling business was carried on after his death by his son James, and a book of 1744 is described on the title-page as “printed for J. Crownfield.”

His successor was Joseph Bentham, appointed first by the Curators as ‘Inspector’ on 28 March, 1740, and elected printer on 14 December of the same year.

Bentham was the son of Samuel Bentham, Vicar of Wichford, near Ely; one of his brothers was James Bentham the historian of Ely and another, Edward Bentham, of Oxford, author of Funebres Orationes and other works.

Joseph Bentham was free of the Stationers' Company and Carter, the historian of Cambridge, refers to him as “allowed by all Judges to be as great a Proficient in the Mystery as any in England; which the Cambridge Common Prayer Books and Bibles … printed by him, will sufficiently evince.”

Before Bentham's appointment, steps had already been taken by the university to revive the business of printing and selling bibles. Thus, in December, 1740, the Curators agreed to print small bibles (9000) price 2s and 1000 on large paper at 2s 6d, and six months later 11,000 small nonpareil bibles and 1000 on large paper.