It would appear from a passage in a letter of Franklin’s in reference to the fine edition of Shaftesbury’s Characteristics, published in 1773 (4to), that, in that year, Baskerville contemplated some further development of his type-founding business.[573] His press, at any rate, seems to have continued active till that date, and even later; although it is doubtful whether the latest works bearing his imprint received his personal oversight.
He died on January 8, 1775. Notwithstanding the poor success of his printing enterprise, he left behind him a fortune of £12,000, which, as he had no heir, went, together with the stock and goodwill of his business, to his widow.[574] {282}
Of Baskerville’s personal character, a biographer observes: “In private life, he was a humourist, idle in the extreme; but his invention was the true Birmingham model, active. He could well design, but procured others to execute; wherever he found merit, he caressed it; he was remarkably polite to the stranger, fond of shew; a figure, rather of the smaller size, and delighted to adorn that figure with gold lace. Although constructed with the light timbers of a frigate, his movement was stately as a ship of the line. During the twenty-five last years of his life, though then in his decline, he retained the singular traces of a handsome man. If he exhibited a peevish temper, we may consider that good nature and intense thinking are not always found together. Taste accompanied him through the different walks of agriculture, architecture, and the fine arts. Whatever passed through his fingers bore the living marks of John Baskerville.”[575]
A less pleasing sketch of his character is given by Mark Noble in his Biographical History of England:—“I have very often”, he says, “been with my father at his house, and found him ever a most profane wretch, and ignorant of literature to a wonderful degree. I have seen many of his letters, which like his will, were not written grammatically, nor could he even spell well. In person he was a shrivelled old coxcomb. His favourite dress was green, edged with narrow gold lace, a scarlet waistcoat, with a very broad gold lace, and a small round hat, likewise edged with gold lace. His wife was all that affectation can describe. . . . She was originally a servant. Such a pair are rarely met with. He had wit; but it was always at the expense of religion and decency, particularly if in company with the clergy. I have often thought there was much similarity in his person to Voltaire, whose sentiments he was ever retailing.”[576]
Professing a total disbelief of the Christian religion, he ordered that his remains should be buried in a tomb in his own grounds, prepared by himself for the purpose, with an epitaph[577] expressing his contempt for the superstition which {283} the bigoted called Religion. Here, accordingly, his body was buried upright, and here it remained, although the building that contained it was destroyed by the Birmingham riots of 1791. About half a century after his death his body was exhumed and exhibited for some time in a shop in Birmingham. Its final resting-place is to this day a matter of debate.
There is a portrait of Baskerville by Exteth, in the possession of the Messrs. Longman, and another in the possession of the Rev. Dr. Caldecott. An engraving of the latter is given in Hansard’s Typographia; and there is a copperplate from the same portrait (unpublished), at the present time in the collection of Mr. Timmins of Birmingham.
Mrs. Baskerville[578], on succeeding to her husband’s property, declined to continue the printing business, although continuing that of letter-founding; and thus advertised her intention to the public:—
“Mrs. Baskerville, being about to decline business as a printer, purposes disposing of the whole of her apparatus in that branch, comprehending, among other articles, all of them perfect in their kind, a large and full assortment of the most beautiful types, with the completest printing presses, hitherto known in England. She begs leave to inform the publick, at the same time, that she continues the business of Letter-founding, in all its parts, with the same care and accuracy that was formerly observed by Mr. Baskerville. Those gentlemen who are inclined to encourage so pleasing an improvement may, by favouring her with their commands, be now supplied with Baskerville’s elegant types at no higher expence than the prices already established in the trade.”[579] April 6, 1775.
The following further advertisement intimates that two years later the typefounding business was still carried on under the same management:—
“The late Mr. Baskerville, having taken some pains to establish and perfect a Letter-foundry for the more readily casting of Printing-types for sale, and as the undertaking was finished but a little before his death, it is now become necessary for his widow, Mrs. Baskerville, to inform all Printers that she continues the same business, and has now ready for sale, a large stock of types, of most sizes, cast with all possible care, and dressed with the utmost accuracy. She hopes the acknowledged partiality of the world, in regard to the peculiar beauty of Mr. Baskerville’s types, in the works he has published, will render it quite unnecessary here to say anything to recommend them—only that she is determined to attend to the undertaking with all care and diligence; and to the end that so useful an improvement may become as extensive as possible, and notwithstanding the extraordinary hardness and durability of these types above all others, she will conform to sell them at the same prices with other Letter founders.” Feb. 25, 1777. {284}