Of Jackson’s private character his contemporaries concur in speaking very highly. “By the death of this ingenious artist and truly worthy man,” says Nichols, “the poor lost a most excellent benefactor, his own immediate connexions a steady friend, and the literary world a valuable coadjutor in their labours.” He was a deacon at the Meeting-House in Barbican, where a funeral sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Towers, who also delivered a “neat funeral oration,” at the grave. He died possessed of some considerable property. There is an oil portrait of him in the possession of Mr. Blades, and an engraved portrait in Nichols’ Literary Anecdotes, from which our copy is taken.

It is unfortunately impossible to ascertain in what condition his foundry was left at the time of his death—how far it had recovered from the consequences of the fire, or how far that calamity had destroyed, beyond replacing, any of its contents.

It was offered for sale in 1792, and Mr. Figgins, the presumptive successor to the business, not finding himself in a position to become its purchaser, it was acquired by William Caslon III, who had recently disposed of his share in the Chiswell Street Foundry, over whose affairs he had for some years been presiding.[673] He removed the Foundry from Dorset Street to Finsbury Square, where for a few years it remained located; but presently transferred it back to its old quarters, leaving the house in Finsbury Square to be converted by James Lackington, the celebrated bookseller, into the “Temple of the Muses,” one of the largest and most popular old book-shops of the day.

In the hands of Mr. Caslon, Jackson’s foundry was greatly enlarged and improved. The specimen of 1798, dedicated to the King, exhibits 19 pages of Titlings and open letters, 1 of Ornamental, 35 of Roman and Italic, 8 of foreign letter and Blacks, 1 of Script, 5 of sundry specimens, and 12 of Flowers.”[674]

The book has many features in common with the Chiswell Street specimen of 1785, many of the founts in which re-appear here. Indeed, it would seem that on relinquishing his share in the parental business, William Caslon III had provided himself with duplicate matrices of several of the Chiswell Street founts, {326} particularly of the Foreign and Oriental letters, which figure prominently in this and subsequent specimens of the Salisbury Square Foundry.

Bound with the book is a specimen of Cast Ornaments, a species of a typographical embellishment which Caslon III had had the merit of introducing into this country in 1784, while still at Chiswell Street. In this particular too, the Salisbury Square specimen is a reproduction of that of the Chiswell Street house.

About the year 1803 Mr. Caslon took his son, the fourth William Caslon, into partnership, and the firm became W. Caslon & Son. The specimen of this year exhibits a slight increase on that of 1798, the chief additions being in the modern-faced Romans, then becoming fashionable. The learned and Oriental founts remain unaltered from the 1798 specimen, and as this is the last specimen of the foundry in which these occupy a prominent place, it will be convenient to give the list here:

The whole of these founts, with the exception of the new English Greek, are identical with those shown in the Chiswell Street Specimen of 1785.

The Specimen Book of 1803 appears to have served the foundry for several years; as copies exist in which the date is altered by hand to 1807, and the name of the firm changed from “W. Caslon & Son” to “W. Caslon, Junior.”