Tace Sowle

Tace Sowle, later Tace Sowle Raylton (1666–1749) was a London-based printer and a major publisher of early Quaker writings.{{Cite ODNB|last=McDowell|first=Paula|date=2008|title=Sowle, Tace|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-67077|access-date=18 February 2022|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/67077|isbn=978-0-19-861412-8}}

Biography

Sowle's parents, Andrew and Jane Sowle, both worked as printers,{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/39671 |pages=ref:odnb/39671 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/39671 |access-date=2022-11-26 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}} and she took over her father's business in 1691 aged 25.{{Cite web|title=Tace Sowle 1666-1749|url=https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/discover/library/online-exhibitions/her-book/printers/tace-sowle-16661749}} She managed the press for fifty-eight years, and at her death was the oldest printer in London.{{Cite news|last=Carn|first=Trish|date=4 February 2011|title=An Early Quaker Woman Printer|pages=12–13|work=The Friend|url=http://www.quakerquip.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/tacesowlearticle.pdf|access-date=18 February 2022}} Following her marriage to Thomas Raylton in 1706, she remained the head of the business and, unusually for the times, continued to use her original surname, being known as Tace Sowle Raylton.{{Cite book|last=McDowell|first=Paula|title=The Women of Grub Street: Press, Politics and Gender in the London Literary Marketplace, 1678–1730|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1998|location=Oxford}} Sowle published a bibliography of her press's work, which is also one of the first bibliographies of Quaker writings.{{Cite book|last=Sowle|first=Tace|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fKi9wgEACAAJ|title=Books Printed and Sold by T. Sowle|publisher=Sowle Press|year=1703}}{{Cite journal|last=Ferlier|first=Louisiane|date=2015|title=Tace Sowle-Raylton (1666–1749) and the Circulation of Books in the London Quaker Community|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/1758348915Z.00000000082|journal=Library and Information History|volume=31|issue=3|pages=157–170|doi=10.1179/1758348915Z.00000000082|s2cid=142539827}}

A fund named after Sowle (using a variant spelling of her name), set up by Quakers United in Publishing, supports Quaker authors.{{Cite web|title=Tacey Sowle Fund|url=https://quaker.org/legacy/quip/tsowle.htm?fbclid=IwAR34Pmamu4M6rbU4nN3cQoUl_15bARBp82W7t3hunC2Ms0i-lrTXJsVy218}}

References

Category:Quakers

Category:English printers

Category:1666 births

Category:1749 deaths