THE CAXTON COFFER.
Did Caxton ever print his name CAUSTON or CAWSTON, or is it ever found so spelt? He tells us, in the preface or prologue to his Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye, "that I was born and learned mine English in Kent, in the Weald." The only locality in Kent which I can discover at all approximating in its name to Caxton, is Causton, a manor in the parish of Hadlow, in the Weald of Kent, held of the honor of Clare. This manor was, in the fourteenth century, possessed by the family of "De Causton;" how and when it passed from them I have been unable to ascertain with certainty, possibly not long before the birth of William Caxton. In 1436, Beatrice Bettenham entails it on the right heirs of her son, Thomas Towne, by which entail it came into the family of Watton of Addington Place, who owned it in 1446. The honor of Clare, and the forest, &c. of South Frith, closely adjoining Causton, descended through one of the co-heiresses of Gilbert de Clare to Richard Duke of York, father of the Duchess of Burgundy and Edward IV., whose widow, Cicely, continued in possession till her death. I name the owners of the manor of Causton, and the chief lords of whom it was held, as affording, perhaps, some clue to identification, should any of your correspondents be inclined to take up the inquiry. I need hardly add that the difference between the two names of Causton and Caxton is of little moment should other circumstances favour the chances that Causton in Hadlow may claim the honour of having given birth to our illustrious printer, or that he was descended from the owners of that manor.
L. B. L.