William Caxton

William Caxton (c. 1422 – c. 1491) was an English merchant, diplomat, and writer credited with bringing the printing press to England in 1476, making him the first English retailer of printed books. His exact birth date and parentage are uncertain, though he was likely born between 1415 and 1424, possibly in the Weald of Kent, with Hadlow or Tenterden as candidates. In 1438, he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a wealthy London silk mercer. After Large’s death, Caxton moved to Bruges, Flanders, where he had settled by 1450. There, he became governor of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of London. While traveling for business, he saw the new printing industry in Cologne, which inspired him to set up a printing press in Bruges with Colard Mansion. Margaret of York, sister of Edward IV, befriended Caxton after her marriage to the Duke of Burgundy, and she encouraged him to finish his translation of the *Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye* in 1471.

Back in England, strong demand for that translation led Caxton to establish a press at Westminster in 1476. His first known printed book there was an edition of Chaucer’s *The Canterbury Tales*, but he went on to publish chivalric romances, classical works, and histories, editing many others. In 1484, he produced the first English translation of Aesop’s Fables. Though not a skilled translator—he often borrowed French words under pressure to publish quickly—his work helped promote Chancery Standard, a London dialect of Middle English, as the country’s standard dialect. In 2002, a BBC poll named him among the 100 Greatest Britons.

Caxton’s family likely included his parents, Philip and Dionisia, and a brother, Philip, though the evidence comes from Suffolk manor charters where he is also called “Causton saddler.” Another possible father is Thomas Caxton of Tenterden, a mercer involved in a 1420 court case. His birth year is unknown, but apprenticeship fees paid in 1438 suggest he was around 14 then, though fees were sometimes paid late. In his first printed work, he claimed to have been born and educated in the Weald of Kent, with oral traditions also pointing to Tonbridge and Tenterden. A house in Hadlow said to be his birthplace was dismantled in 1936 and moved to Forest Row, East Sussex. By 1438, he was in London, apprenticed to Robert Large, who died in 1441, leaving Caxton a small sum of £20, suggesting he was not a senior apprentice.

Caxton traveled to Bruges by 1450 and settled there by 1453, when he may have taken his liberty from the Mercers’ Company. His business success led to his role as governor of the Merchant Adventurers, and his trade with Burgundy brought him into the household of Margaret, Duchess of Burgundy. This led to more travel, including to Cologne, where German printing influenced him. He set up a press in Bruges with Colard Mansion, producing the first English printed book in 1473: his own translation of the *Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye*. In its epilogue, he described his hand growing weary from copying and how he learned to print instead. The book’s popularity at the Burgundian court spurred him to start the press.

Returning to England, he set up the first press in the Almonry area of Westminster in 1476. Besides *The Canterbury Tales*, an early title was *Dictes or Sayengis of the Philosophres* (1477), translated by Earl Rivers. His translations of the *Golden Legend* (1483) and *The Book of the Knight in the Tower* (1484) contain some of the earliest Bible verses printed in English, and he also produced the first English translation of Ovid’s *Metamorphoses*. His *Golden Legend* was based on Jean de Vignay’s French version. He continued publishing chivalric romances and other works.