It is appropriate to remember Ben Franklin on the 303rd anniversary of his birth in January. So let’s tell the tale of William Caslon, the leading English type foundry of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, with links to Ben. The first time Americans saw the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they were set in Caslon type. Through Franklin’s introduction, a Baltimore printer used Caslon for both printings. Caslon types were popular throughout Europe and the American colonies. Franklin had Bodoni’s and Baskerville’s types but used Caslon most of the time.

William Caslon was born in Cradley, Worcestershire in 1692. He made a living engraving Government marks on the locks of guns. In 1719, a group of London printers and booksellers asked the young engraver to cut a font of Arabic type for a new Psalter and New Testament. In 1720, a printer gave him 500 pounds to set up a type foundry. Caslon modeled most of his fonts on Dutch type, with many refinements. Dutch fonts were monotonous, but Caslon’s fonts accentuated the difference between thick and thin strokes, working from Old Style Roman types as models. He created a uniquely English typographic look. The type was easier to read and became popular around the globe as English colonialists exported it.

He set up his foundry in Chiswell Street in London and it continued to operate into the 1960s. Caslon died in 1766 and the foundry continued under William Caslon II. On his death in 1778, the property was split between his wife and son, William Caslon III. In 1792 the son sold his share to his mother and his sister-in-law to buy the foundry of their rival, Joseph Jackson. In 1819, William Caslon IV had sold the Chiswell Street business to Sheffield typefounders Stephenson Blake. The other family foundry, HW Caslon & Co, passed down through various members of the family until 1937 and was sold to Stephenson Blake.