William Caxton, the first English printer, born in Kent about 1412, died in 1-491 or 1492. In his 15th or 16th year he was apprenticed to Robert Large, a London mercer, who became lord mayor in 1439. In 1441 Caxton became a freeman of the mercers' company, who appointed him their agent in the Low Countries, where he remained 23 years. In 1464 he was joined with Robert Whitehill in a commission to continue a treaty between Edward IV. of England and Philip, duke of Burgundy, or, if they thought it better, to make a new one. When the English princess Margaret of York married Charles of Burgundy, she took Caxton into her household. While in her service he translated from the French into English Raoul le Fevre's Eecueil des histoires de Troye. From the prologues and epilogues of this work it appears that he was acquainted with the art of printing, and from the character of his types it is evident that he learned it in the Low Countries. The first three printed works of Caxton were the original of Raoul's " History," the oration of John Russell on Charles, duke of Burgundy, being created a knight of the garter, and the translation of Raoul, the last completed in 1471. There is no certain evidence of the exact period of Caxton's return to England; the usual supposition dates it in 1474; it is beyond doubt, however, that in 1477 he had taken up his quarters in the vicinity of Westminster abbey, London. His printing office was in the Almonry, as appears from an old placard preserved at Oxford, which reads as follows: "If it plese any man spirituel or tem-porel to bye ony Pyes of two and thre corae-moracious of Salisburi vse enprynted after the forme of this present lettre whiche ben wel and truly correct, late hym come to West-monester in to the Almonesrye at the reed pale, and he shal have them good chepe." Caxton appears to have made use of several different sets of letters, the facsimiles of all which are to be found in Dibdin's account of Caxton's works.

He had at first two kinds of the sort called secretary; afterward he used three founts of great primer, a rude one employed in 1474, and two improved sets later; one fount of double pica, which first appears employed in 1490; and one of long primer. All 'his works were printed in black letter. Some entries in the parish accounts of St. Margaret, Westminster, in the year 1491 or 1492, are the only information we have of the date of his death: "Item; atte bureyng of William Caxton for iiij. torches vj8. viijd. Item; for the belle at same bureyng, vjd The largest collections of books from Caxton's press are those in the British museum, and in the library of Earl Spencer at Althorp. The names of about 64 productions are known. Warton says that by translating a great number of works from the French he did much in his day to enrich English literature. - See Lewis's "Life of Caxton" (London, 1737); "The Old Printer and the Modern Press," by Charles Knight (1854; new ed., 1861); and "Life and Typography of William Caxton," by William Blades (2 vols. 4to, London, 1861).