Job Caudwell
Job Caudwell | |
|---|---|
.png) Caudwell, c. 1850 | |
| Born | 1820 Drayton Manor, Berkshire, England |
| Died | (aged 87) Wandsworth, Surrey, England |
| Occupations |
|
| Spouses | Eliza Cooper Braine
(m. 1860; died 1887)Eliza Harvey (m. 1901) |
| Children | 5 |
Job Caudwell 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, Berkshire.[1] He was christened on 17 January 1821 in Drayton.[2] Caudwell was the seventh and youngest son, of William Caudwell (1779–1854) and his wife Hannah (née Lousley; 1782–1849).[1] Caudwell had 20 siblings. His family belonged to the ancient armigerous Caudwell lineage in Berkshire, which had settled in Abingdon in 1790.[3]
Raised in rural Berkshire, Caudwell later embarked on extensive travels. His academic interests centred on botany and he also engaged in antiquarian research.[3]
Temperance, vegetarianism, and reform
Caudwell was a committed teetotaller, who worked to address what he regarded as the root causes of social problems, particularly those he associated with alcohol consumption.[3][4] With fellow activist William Horsell he co-published the Temperance Star (1857–1876) and the Temperance Spectator (1859–1867). After Horsell's death in 1863, Caudwell published the Journal of Health.[4]
Caudwell became a vegetarian through reading and adorned his home with vegetarian mottos.[5] He was actively involved in the vegetarian movement in London and was involved with the London Vegetarian Association.[3] He published the vegetarian cookbook Vegetarian Cookery for the Million in 1864.[4] Caudwell was also reported, in the Journal of Health, to have climbed Ben Nevis while following a vegetarian diet.[3]
Caudwell was a member of the Anti-Compulsory Vaccination League (later the National Anti-Vaccination League).[3] He also supported homeopathy and hydropathy.[6]
Publishing ventures and health enterprises
In July 1859, Caudwell entered into a publishing partnership with William Horsell at 335 The Strand, which lasted until September 1860.[5]
From the same premises Caudwell also operated a small homeopathic institute, where he dispensed his own preparation of homeopathic cocoa and sold unadulterated flour.[3] His publishing output in the 1860s included temperance dictionaries, health manuals, and studies of Mormonism. He also published Southcottian works and studies of the American Civil War.[5]
Societies and memberships
Caudwell was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1863,[2] and in 1879, he became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.[7] In 1891, he became a member of the Victoria Institute.[8]
Public recognition and other activities
Historian James Gregory describes Caudwell as a "household name" in the Victorian temperance movement.[3] In February 1865, a memoir and portrait of Caudwell was published in The Illustrated News of the World, where he served as editor.[2][3] In 1881, he laid the cornerstone of Putney Methodist Church.[9]
Personal life and death
Caudwell married Eliza Cooper Braine in 1860 and together they had four sons and one daughter.[2][10] His wife died in 1887. Caudwell married Eliza Harvey in 1901.[2]
Caudwell died on 5 June 1908, aged 87, in Wandsworth, Surrey.[11]
Selected publications
- Vegetarian Cookery for the Million (six editions; 1864–1865)[3]: 350
- Job Caudwell's Threepenny Pledge Book (1865)[12]
References
- ^ a b "Descendants of William Caudwell" (PDF). Sowdons of Reading Family History. Retrieved 11 March 2024.
- ^ a b c d e "Job Caudwell (1820-1908)". The Holliday Family Tree Newsletter. Vol. 1, no. 4. September 2008. p. 12. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (May 2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era". The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF) (PhD thesis). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. pp. 23–24, 59. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
- ^ a b c Gregory, James (2013) [2008]. "'Zealously affected in a good thing' The publishing career and life of William Horsell (1807‒1863)". Academia.edu. pp. 11, 22, 29. Retrieved 28 June 2024.
- ^ "Victorian Popular Fiction Association 11th Annual Conference: Abstracts and Biographies" (PDF). Victorian Popular Fiction Association. p. 9. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
- ^ "List of Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society". The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London. 49: 551. 1879 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "C". Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute. XXIX: 294. 1897 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ "1881 - Putney Methodist Church - Gwendolen Avenue, London, UK". Waymarking. 18 January 2021. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
- ^ "Births Jun 1875". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 18 January 2025.
- ^ "Deaths". The Norwood News. 13 June 1908. p. 1. Retrieved 7 December 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ "Job Caudwell's Threepenny Pledge Book for the Pocket, etc. [Ruled blank leaves for signatures, etc.] | WorldCat.org". WorldCat. Retrieved 17 November 2024.