Merchant and translator William Caxton (c1415-1424 to c1491) has in influence as a pioneer and standardizer of the English language at a key moment in its evolution that means he might rank as one of the most influential figure in this collection, even if this is not due to his own writing. His introduction of mechanised printing presses into Britain after witnessing Germany technology in the 1450s while in Cologne was a pivotal moment in the development of the country’s language, identity and culture, as well as a remarkable example of the ways in which relations with the continent were far more multi-faceted, and much more constructive, than simply being characterised as a long series of conflicts and wars.
There is little clarity about both where precisely Caxton was born precisely and when. This is despite the confident claims of places like Tenterden, where a public house is named after him, or Sevenoaks Weald, where the ancient house of the Long Barn, occupied by Vita Sackville-West and her husband Harold Nicholson in the 1920s (see entry for her), also has a claim to having once been inhabited by their great predecessor. He himself wrote in the introduction to the first work he translated and published, `Historyes of Troye’ that `I was born and learned mine English in Kent in the Weald’ (see `Notice of Kent Worthies- Caxton’ in Archaeologia Cantiana. Kent Archaeological Society, 1859, 2: 231 – https://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/002-1859/16/Arch%20Cant%202-16a.pdf ) Circumstantial evidence also links a family of Caxtons to Hadlow, and so the most one can conclude is that it is most likely he was born and grew up here, though have less certainty about where precisely this was.
There is more information about his movements after 1438 when he was apprenticed to a silk mercer, Robert Large, in London. In 1450 he was in Bruges, Belgium, and the head of the Company of Merchant Adventurers there, doing business. This led to his exposure to the innovative printing techniques in Cologne on a visit there sometime later that decade. The afore mentioned `Historyes of Troy’, based on Homer’s `Iliad’ was produced in 1471, the first ever printed book in English, before his return to Britain, and his establishment of his own printing press at Westminster in 1476.
At this point too he has links to Kent, because the first volume issued by his new press was Chaucer’s `Canterbury Tales’ (a digital copy of which is available on the British Library website at https://www.bl.uk/treasures/caxton/search.asp). He went on to translate 27 known works, including the first English language version of Aesop’s `Fables’ in 1484, and `Le Morte Darthur’ by Thomas Malory. In practical terms, Caxton’s contribution is immense. Not only did he introduce techniques for the mass production of books, but also contributed towards the establishment of standardisation of spelling, grammar and specific words in the English language. This means that his links with Kent are worth celebrating, even if he was to undertake much of his work either out of Britain, or in central London