Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 09.djvu/274

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property was equally divided between his widow and his two sons, William and Henry, who eventually became the heads of distinct families and chiefs of two separate firms of type-founders. William Caslon (third of the name) sold his share to his mother (d. 24 Oct. 1795) and sister-in-law, the widow of Henry Caslon. He set up a separate business, which in 1819 was moved to Sheffield, where the firm still exists as Stephenson, Blake, & Co. The other firm was represented by Henry William Caslon, last of the name, who died 14 July 1874, and the business is still carried on as A. W. Caslon & Co.

[The Caslon Specimen Books; Rowe Mores's English Letter-founders, pp. 63, 97; Hansard's Typographia, 1st edit. p. 368; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. ii. 355; Nichols's Illustrations, ii. 337, iv. 173, 231, viii. 447, 474, 521; Hawkins's History of Music, v. 127; Dibdin's Decameron, ii. 379; West's Views of Shropshire, p. 121; Bigelow's Bibliog. of Printing, i. 103–6; Universal Magazine, November 1750; Gent. Mag. xxi. 284, xxxvi. 47, xlix. 271, lv. 329, lvii., 1129, lxx. 796, lxxix. 579, 589, lxxxvi. i. 377, lxxxviii. i. 587, xxxiv. new ser. 96; Ann. Reg. 1850, p. 232; Works and Life of Franklin, 1812, i. 72; Lemoine's Typographical Antiquities, p. 79; Timperley's History of Printing, pp. 683, 714, 744, 749, 806, 834, 942; Printing Times and Lithographer, October 1874; documents of the Chiswell Street firm and family papers.]

J. W.-G.

CASSAN, STEPHEN HYDE (1789–1841), ecclesiastical biographer, son of Stephen Cassan, barrister, by his wife Sarah, daughter of Charles Mears, was born in 1789 at Calcutta, where his father was sheriff. He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and took his B.A. degree on 14 Jan. 1815. He received deacon's orders on 26 March following, and was ordained priest the next year. While curate of Frome, Somerset, in 1820, he made a runaway match with Fanny, daughter of Rev. William Ireland, then dead, formerly vicar of that parish. This marriage occasioned considerable scandal, and led to legal proceedings, of which an account is given in two pamphlets published at Bath in 1821—one, ‘A Report of the Trial, Cassan v. Ireland, for Defamation;’ and the other by Cassan, entitled ‘Who wrote the Letters, or a Statement of Facts.’ Removing from Frome, he held the curacy of Mere, Wiltshire, until 1831, when he was presented by Sir Richard C. Hoare to the living of Bruton with Wyke Champflower. He was also chaplain to the Earl of Caledon and to the Duke of Cambridge. His family was large, and he was constantly involved in pecuniary difficulties. From these he sought to free himself by publishing books by subscription, and by seeking for promotion. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1829. After suffering from insanity for two years, he died on 19 July 1841. Besides pamphlets—one of them mentioned above—he published: 1. ‘The Sin of Schism, and the Protestant Episcopal Church proved to be the only safe means of Salvation, a Sermon preached in the Parish Church of Frome,’ 1819; 2nd ed., with appendix, 1820. This was answered by ‘A Word of Advice to the Curate of Frome,’ 1820. 2. ‘Lives and Memoirs of the Bishops of Sherborne and Salisbury,’ 1824. 3. A volume of sermons, 1827. 4. ‘Lives of the Bishops of Winchester,’ 1827, 2 vols. 5. ‘Lives of the Bishops of Bath and Wells,’ 1830. No set of his lives of the bishops is of any real value, the memoirs being almost wholly composed of extracts from well-known printed books. Such original remarks as they contain are extraordinarily childish and whimsical, and in many cases exhibit a degree of intolerance which was probably caused by the latent presence of mental disorder. Besides these works, Cassan compiled genealogies of himself and of other members of his family, which he circulated widely for the purpose of proving that his descent was noble, and that he therefore had a strong claim to preferment. He contributed various genealogical notices to the ‘Gentleman's Magazine.’

[Gent. Mag. 1841, pt. ii. 550; information from E. Green, esq., hon. secretary of the Somerset Archæological Society.]

W. H.

CASSEL or CASSELS, RICHARD (fl. 1757). [See Castle, Richard.]

CASSELL, JOHN (1817–1865), publisher, son of Mark Cassell, the landlord of the Ring o' Bells, in the Old Churchyard, Manchester, who died in 1830, was born in his father's inn at Manchester on 23 Jan. 1817. His education was of a very slight nature, and at an early age he was bound apprentice to a joiner at Salford. In 1833 his attention was especially called to the temperance movement by hearing Mr. Joseph Livesey speaking on the subject in Oak Street Chapel, Manchester, and on the completion of his indentures he commenced his introduction to public life by setting out on a temperance lecturing tour. He had already by careful self-culture obtained an extensive acquaintance with English literature, great general information, and a fair mastery of the French language. In quest of employment as a carpenter he reached London in October 1836, and shortly afterwards spoke at a temperance meeting in the New Jeru-