Elizabeth Caslon lived from 1730 until 1795 and was a typefounder, businesswoman and mentor to another successful female entrepreneur.
Elizabeth was born in London and in July 1751 married William Caslon. This would prove crucial both to her personal life as to her involvement in business. Many women became immediately involved in their husbands’ businesses upon marriage, as being a stay-at-home mother in the modern sense was a rare position. Family finances did not allow working-class women to not contribute, and consequentially many women applied themselves where they could (often being self-employed, e.g. as a market seller) or joined their husbands’ workshops.
Elizabeth Caslon joined the family's Caslon foundry alongside her husband. The foundry had been around since 1720, founded by William Caslon’s father. In the age of manually creating a printing page by setting all letters and ornament stamps for a page together into a frame, these letters had to be bought by printers from type foundries. Metal type was made by a technique called punchcutting which involved cutting punches in steel used to stamp matrices, the moulds used to cast metal type. William Caslon senior was a trained engraver and started and grew the foundry into a profitable business. Especially their Caslon type was a hit in the American colonies and even was the font used to print the first US Declaration of Independence. The couple went on to have several children. In 1758, Caslon senior retired and the couple were the business owners by themselves. They innovated fonts, striving to provide their customers with novelties, and with type sizes such as for stagecoach posters. Their competitors were not idle either and the type business was hard. Scottish foundries had cheaper labour costs and undercut them on prices, other foundries developed elegant fonts which became popular. Nonetheless, the Caslon type continued to be popular. They struggled with copy-cats who forged their type and threatened their artistry and finances. Nonetheless, they persevered.
Sadly, after 37 years of marriage, when Elizabeth was 58 years old, William Caslon died in 1788. His estate was shared by Elizabeth and the sons William and Henry. Rather than withdrawing, Elizabeth made sure the business continued with her involvement and she renamed it to “Elizabeth Caslon and Sons”. Tragically, this new business union was short-lived as son Henry died in the same year as his father. It must have been a truly horrible year for Elizabeth. That she continued to go ahead is proof both to her toughness and possibly that having something to concentrate on and strive for was helpful to her in that state. Henry’s share had gone to his widow Elizabeth and the two women and the other brother William continued in business partnership for several years.
Another hardship was on the horizon for Elizabeth personally, while professionally the type foundry seems to have been a profitable and reputable undertaking. Her other son William sold his share in 1792 after a disagreement with his mother. One is inclined to attribute this to feeling a lack of self-determination in the business of his mother. Maybe William, like many children of successful parents and especially business owners, found it hard to make his own mark on a business while the eagle eye of his mother was on it. Maybe Elizabeth found it hard to hand over the reigns to the next generation. Maybe William was less skilled than he himself would like to believe, or maybe his mother was unable to see that his way of doing things was as good as her own albeit different. Whatever the causes, they parted ways professionally. William set himself up as a rival typefounder with a separate Caslon foundry which he ran together with his own son from 1793 until 1819.
Undeterred by this, Elizabeth’s daughter-in-law Elizabeth, widow of son Henry, stayed. The two women continued together running the foundry for three years until Elizabeth senior died in 1795. Some writers have declared the period since 1788 as a time of stagnation and mismanagement. That productivity may have fallen seems very likely given that Elizabeth lost three family in close succession in the business and that her husband in particular must have been a driving force, artistic innovator and a well-connected businessman. She and her daughter-in-law had to learn the ropes of actually spearheading the business by themselves. They also had to content with stronger competition and with changing tastes in type aesthetics which required investment. Besides that, some of the scholarly judgment may well be steeped in extra criticism because it was two ladies running the business and not men.
William senior’s obituary stated:
An arduous task now devolved on Mrs. Elizabeth Caslon...the entire management of a very large concern did not, however, come with that weight which it would have borne upon one unaccustomed to the habits of business. Mrs Caslon...had for many years habituated herself to the arrangements of the foundry; so that when the entire care devolved upon her, she manifested powers of mind beyond expectation from a female not then in very early life. In a few years her son, the present Mr. William Caslon, became an active co-partner with his mother, but a misunderstanding between them caused a secession, and they separated their concerns...the urbanity of her manners, and her diligence and activity in the conduct of so extensive a concern, attached to her interest all who had dealings with her, and the steadiness of her friendship rendered her death highly lamented by all who had the happiness of being in the extensive circle of her acquaintance.
Elizabeths estate and the business were auctioned off after her death as the will apparently caused legal confusion (indicating that William was excluded). Who bought the business for £520? The daughter-in-law Elizabeth (Mrs Henry Caslon).
London printer Thomas Curson Hansard (1776 – 1833), a contemporary of Mrs Henry Caslon, wrote of her and her management as follows:
The management of the foundry devolved on Mrs. Henry Caslon, who, possessing an excellent understanding, and being seconded by servants of zeal and ability, was enabled, though suffering severely under ill health, in a great measure to retrieve its credit. Finding the renown of William Caslon no longer efficacious in securing the sale of his types, she resolved to have new fonts cut. She commenced the work of renovation with a new canon, double pica, and pica, having the good fortune to secure the services of John Isaac Drury, a very able engraver, since deceased. The Pica, an improvement on the style of Bodoni, was particularly admired, and had a most extensive sale. Finding herself, however, from the impaired state of her health...unable to sustain the exertions required in conducting so extensive a concern, she resolved, after the purchase of the foundry, to take as an active partner Mr. Nathaniel Catherwood, who by his energy and knowledge of business fully equalled her expectations.
Both Elizabeth Caslon, who had remarried a Mr Strong, and Nathaniel Catherwood died in 1809. Her son Henry Caslon, by her first husband Henry, took over the business together with Nathaniel Catherwood's brother, John Hames Catherwood.
The Caslon type foundry continued to operate until 1936.
