James’ business appears to have thriven for a time, owing doubtless to the fact of his being possessed of the matrices of Dutch letter, which at that time had quite superseded the home productions in the popular favour. So much were they sought after, indeed, that we hear of a great printer like Tonson making a special journey to Holland, and there laying out as much as £300 on Dutch letter. The upper floor, on which the work of the foundry was carried on in the house at the Town Ditch, being insufficient in strength for the weight of his operations, he removed to the foundry in Bartholomew Close, where he continued till the time of his death. “This founding House,” says Rowe Mores, “is an edifice disjoined from the dwelling-house, and seems to have been built for Mr. James’ own purpose. The dwelling-house is an irregular rambling place, formerly in the occupation of Mr. Roycroft, afterwards in that of Mr. Houndeslow, afterwards in that of Mr. S. Palmer, author of the General History of Printing, and lastly that of the two Mr. James’s, and was a part of the Priory of St. Bartholomew. And in this house wrought formerly as a journeyman {218} with Mr. Palmer, a gentleman well known since in the philosophical world, Dr. Benj. Franklin of Philadelphia.” Franklin worked here in 1725 for about a year, during which time, as he himself states in the interesting note quoted from his autobiography at page 15, he was an occasional visitor in James’s typefoundry adjoining.
James’ later years were embittered by transactions which tended neither to his credit nor his fortunes, and which one would be tempted to pass by unnoticed, but that the history of English type-founding is closely involved in the narration.
In the year 1725 a Scotch printer complained to William Ged, a respectable goldsmith of Edinburgh, of the inconvenience of being compelled to send to London or Holland for type, there being no foundry in Scotland at the time, and urged him to undertake the business of type-founder. Ged, in considering the matter, was struck with the idea of producing plates from whole pages of composed type, and after several experiments, satisfied himself that the idea was practicable.[409] In 1727 he entered into a contract with an Edinburgh printer to prosecute the invention, but the latter being intimidated by the rumoured costliness of the process, withdrew from the bargain at the end of two years. In 1729 Ged entered into a new partnership with William Fenner, a London stationer, who offered, for one half of the profits, to find the requisite capital and work the undertaking. Fenner introduced him to Thomas James, the founder, and a company was shortly afterwards formed, consisting of Ged, Fenner, Thomas James, John James, his brother, an architect at Greenwich, and James Ged, son of the inventor. Ged’s narrative, which is simple, and to all appearances straightforward, represents Thomas James as having played from the first a highly dishonourable part in the proceedings of the new company. Being naturally selected to provide the necessary type, he supplied worn and battered letter, which Ged was compelled to reject as useless. Ged next applied to the King’s printers, who had recently discarded James’s type in favour of the highly superior letter of William Caslon, for permission to take plates from some formes of their new letter. The printers consulted Mr. Caslon, who not only denied the utility of {219} the invention, but asserted that he could, if he chose, make as good plates as Ged.[410] A wager of £50 ensued. Each of the disputants was furnished with a page of type, and allowed eight days for producing the plate. At the end of a single day Ged produced three plates to the umpire, who was bound to admit his success. This feat becoming known, the partners applied for, and obtained a privilege from the University of Cambridge in 1731, to print Bibles and Prayer Books by the new method.
Ged was, however, again thwarted in every direction by the treachery of his colleagues, especially of Thomas James, who continued to supply imperfect type, and actively intrigued with the King’s printers for the purpose of upsetting the University contract and discrediting the invention. With wonderful courage and perseverance Ged struggled against the opposition, and, it is said, completed two Prayer Books. The printers engaged on the work, however, were influenced by James, the compositors making malicious errors in the text, and the pressmen damaging the formes with their ink balls. The complaint thus raised against the type was the motive for sending James in 1732 to Holland, to procure fresh letter. This second expedition lacked all the interesting features of the first, and he returned after being absent for two months and spending £160, with only one fount of type, far too large for the requirements of the undertaking. Meanwhile, however, in consequence of the persistent animosity of the printers, the books were suppressed by authority, and the plates sent to the King’s printing house, and thence to Caslon’s foundry to be broken up.[411] Ged, shattered in health and fortune, returned to Edinburgh in 1733, where, by the assistance of his friends, he was enabled, after some delay, to finish his edition of Sallust.[412] He died in 1749.[413] {220}
The dishonourable part taken by James in this business reacted on himself, for we find that he suffered considerably both in purse and business, in consequence of his connection with the undertaking. “The printers,” says Mores, “would not employ him, because the block printing, had it succeeded, would have been prejudicial to theirs.”[414] The rising fame of Caslon at this particular period contributed also, and with equal force, to the ill-success of his later years.
Before his death, however, he added considerably to his foundry, chiefly by the purchase of the foundries of his old master, Robert Andrews, and of his son Sylvester at Oxford. By the former he acquired not only a large number of Roman and Italics, but also several Oriental and curious founts (some of which had formed the foundry of Moxon), which constituted the nucleus of that large collection for which his foundry subsequently became notorious. He died in 1736,[415] after a long illness, during which his son John James managed the business.
The following circular, addressed to the printing trade at the time of his death, is interesting, not only as notifying the fact, but as being put forward as a specimen of the type of the foundry.
ADVERTISEMENT.
“The death of Mr. Thomas James of Bartholomew Close, Letter Founder, having been industriously published in the Newspapers, without the least mention of any person to succeed in his business, it is become necessary for the widow James to give as public notice that she carries on the business of letter founding, to as great exactness as formerly, by her son John James, who had managed it during his father’s long illness; the letter this advertisement is printed on being his performance.[416] And he casts all other sorts from the largest to the smallest size. Also the Saxon, Greek, Hebrew, and all the Oriental types, of various sizes.” {221}
Although the above seems to indicate that John James was a practical letter-cutter, he does not appear to have contributed much to the increase of his foundry by his own handiwork. In 1739 he purchased, jointly with William Caslon, the foundry of Robert Mitchell, and took a half of the matrices.[417] A year later he bought Ilive’s foundry. Of this purchase Rowe Mores mentions that the two founts of Nonpareil Greek, though duly paid for, never came to James’s hands. The remaining matrices, consisting of Roman and Italics and a few sundries, were transferred to Bartholomew Close, where they lay, apparently unused, in the boxes distinguished by the name of Jugge.
A far more important purchase was made some eighteen years later, when Grover’s foundry, after having lain idle for thirty years in the possession of his family, was finally sold to James by Mr. Nutt in 1758. By this purchase James became possessed of a stock of matrices, the number of which nearly doubled his own foundry, and which included many of the most interesting relics of the art.[418] At the same time, he combined in one no fewer than nine of the old English foundries, and remained, with Caslon and Baskerville, as one of only three representatives of the trade in the country.[419]