Job Caudwell

{{Short description|English publisher, bookseller, editor, and activist (1820–1908)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Job Caudwell

| honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|GBR|FRSL|FRGS|size=100}}

| image = Job Caudwell (cropped).png

| alt = A sepia-toned, historical portrait of a bearded man wearing a suit and bow tie, with an indistinct facial expression.

| caption = Caudwell, {{circa|1850}}

| birth_date = 1820

| birth_place = Drayton Manor, Abingdon, England

| death_date = {{Death date|1908|06|05|df=y}} (aged 87)

| death_place = Wandsworth, Surrey, England

| occupation = {{Hlist|Publisher|bookseller|editor|activist}}

| spouse = {{Plainlist|

{{Marriage|Eliza Cooper Braine|1860|1887|end=d.}}
{{Marriage|Eliza Harvey|1901}}

}}

| children = 5

}}

Job Caudwell {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FRSL|FRGS}} (1820 – 5 June 1908) was an English publisher, bookseller, editor, and activist. He edited temperance and reform literature and advocated for temperance, vegetarianism, and against vaccination. Caudwell also published and edited multiple temperance periodicals and authored a vegetarian cookbook, Vegetarian Cookery for the Million. He played significant roles in the London Vegetarian Association and the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League. He ran a homeopathic institute from his publishing office. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Geographical Society, he was also a member of the Victoria Institute.

Biography

= Early life and family =

Job Caudwell was born in 1820, at Drayton Manor in Abingdon. He was christened on 17 January 1821 in Drayton.{{Cite periodical |date=September 2008 |title=Job Caudwell (1820-1908) |url=https://kipdf.com/the-holliday-family-tree-newsletter_5ab4df361723dd349c817ae1.html |access-date=2022-10-01 |magazine=The Holliday Family Tree Newsletter |page=12 |volume=1 |issue=4}} Caudwell was the seventh and youngest son, of William Caudwell (1779–1854) and his wife Hannah (née Lousley; 1782–1849).{{Cite web |title=Descendants of William Caudwell |url=https://sowdonfamilyhistory.org.uk/pdf/caudwellholliday.pdf |access-date=2024-03-11 |website=Sowdons of Reading Family History}} Coming from a large family, Caudwell had 20 siblings. His family belonged to the ancient, armigerous Caudwell lineage in Berkshire, which had settled in Abingdon in 1790.{{Cite book |last=Gregory |first=James Richard Thomas Elliott |url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467032/2/886115_v.2.pdf |title=The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections |publisher=University of Southampton |year=2002 |volume=2 |language=en |chapter=Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era |access-date=2022-10-02}}{{Rp|page=|pages=23–24}}

= Career and activism =

Raised in rural Berkshire, Caudwell later embarked on extensive travels. His academic interests centred on botany and he also engaged in antiquarian research. Caudwell dedicated his life to tackling the root causes of social issues, particularly those related to alcohol consumption.{{Rp|page=|pages=23–24}}

Caudwell was actively involved with the London Vegetarian Association (later the Vegetarian Society) and the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League (later the National Anti-Vaccination League).{{Rp|page=|pages=23–24}} Between 1857 and 1876, he significantly contributed to the periodical Temperance Star as a publisher and editor, and from 1859 to 1867, he edited the Temperance Spectator. Additionally, he published the Journal of Health and authored the vegetarian cookbook Vegetarian Cookery for the Million in 1864. Caudwell also advocated for homeopathy and hydropathy.{{Cite web |title=Victorian Popular Fiction Association 11th Annual Conference: Abstracts and Biographies |url=https://victorianpopularfiction.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/VPFA-2019-Abstracts-and-Bios-final.pdf |access-date=2022-10-01 |website=Victorian Popular Fiction Association}}

In July 1859, he entered a publishing partnership with fellow activist William Horsell at 335 The Strand, which lasted until September 1860.{{Cite web |last=Gregory |first=James |date=2013 |orig-date=2008 |title='Zealously affected in a good thing' The publishing career and life of William Horsell (1807‒1863) |url=https://www.academia.edu/4197704 |access-date=2024-06-28 |publisher=Academia.edu |language=en}}{{Rp|page=11|pages=}} Caudwell's publishing office also doubled as a homeopathic institute, where Caudwell dispensed his unique brand of homeopathic cocoa.{{Rp|page=59|pages=}} He also sold unadulterated flour there.{{Rp|page=|pages=23–24}} Caudwell’s publications in the 1860s included temperance dictionaries, health manuals, and studies of Mormonism. He also published Southcottian works and studies of the American Civil War.{{Rp|page=|pages=29}}

Caudwell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1863, and in 1879, he became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.{{Cite journal |date=1879 |title=List of Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society |url=https://archive.org/details/s572id13663850 |journal=The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London |volume=49 |page=[https://archive.org/details/s572id13663850/page/n41/mode/1up 551] |via=Internet Archive}} In 1891, he became a member of the Victoria Institute.{{Cite journal |date=1897 |title=C. |journal=Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute |volume=XXIX |page=[https://archive.org/details/journaltransact19britgoog/page/n324/mode/1up 294] |via=Internet Archive}}

In February 1865, a memoir and portrait of Caudwell was published in The Illustrated News of the World,{{Rp|page=|pages=23–24}} where he served as editor. In 1881, he laid the cornerstone of Putney Methodist Church.{{Cite web |date=2021-01-18 |title=1881 - Putney Methodist Church - Gwendolen Avenue, London, UK |url=https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/wm13NTW_1881_Putney_Methodist_Church_Gwendolen_Avenue_London_UK |access-date=2022-10-07 |website=Waymarking}}

= Personal life and death =

A committed teetotaler, Caudwell became a vegetarian through reading and adorned his home with vegetarian mottos.{{Rp|page=22|pages=}} He was also an avid outdoorsman, known for successfully summiting Ben Nevis as a vegetarian.

Caudwell married Eliza Cooper Braine in 1860 and together they had four sons and one daughter.{{Cite web |title=Births Jun 1875 |url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=XQDZgNlLH3FF173v1OF%2FMw&scan=1 |accessdate=18 January 2025 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}} Following her death in 1887, he married Eliza Harvey in 1901.

Caudwell died at the age of 87 on 5 June 1908 in Wandsworth, Surrey.{{Cite news |date=1908-06-13 |title=Deaths |work=The Norwood News |page=[https://www.newspapers.com/image/805785793 1] |via=Newspapers.com}} {{subscription required}}

Selected publications

Vegetarian Cookery for the Million (six editions; 1864–1865){{Rp|page=350}}
Job Caudwell's Threepenny Pledge Book (1865){{Cite web |title=Job Caudwell's Threepenny Pledge Book for the Pocket, etc. [Ruled blank leaves for signatures, etc.] {{!}} WorldCat.org |url=https://search.worldcat.org/title/557583794 |access-date=2024-11-17 |website=WorldCat |language=en}}