Editing William Caxton (section)

===Early life===
Caxton's family "fairly certainly" consisted of his parents, Philip and Dionisia, and a brother, Philip.<ref name=Hadlow/> However, the charters used as evidence there are for the manor of [[Little Wratting]] in [[Suffolk]]; in one charter, this William Caxton is referred to as "otherwise called Causton saddler".<ref>N. F. Blake. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_sioDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT56 "William Caxton"] in ''Authors in the Middle Ages'', Volume III.</ref>

One possible candidate for William's father is Thomas Caxton of [[Tenterden]], Kent, who was like William, a [[Mercery|mercer]]. He was one of the defendants in a case in the Court of Common Pleas<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://aalt.law.uh.edu/H5/CP40no637/bCP40no637dorses/IMG_1293.htm|title=AALT Page|website=aalt.law.uh.edu|accessdate=2 May 2023}}</ref> in Easter term 1420: Kent. John Okman, versus "Thomas Kaxton, of Tentyrden, mercer", and Joan who was the wife of Thomas Ive, executors of Thomas Ive, for the return of two bonds (scripta obligatoria) which they unjustly retain.

Caxton's date of birth is unknown. Records place it in 1415–1424, based on the fact that his apprenticeship fees were paid in 1438. Caxton would have been 14 at the date of apprenticeship, but masters often paid the fees late.<ref>{{cite book |last=Blake |first=Norman Francis |title=Caxton and his World |publisher=London House & Maxwell |year=1969 |isbn=9780233960937 |location=London |page=28 }}</ref> In the preface to his first printed work ''The [[Recuyell of the Historyes of Troye]]'', he claims to have been born and educated in the [[Weald]] of [[Kent]].<ref name=AC1859>{{cite journal |url=http://www.kentarchaeology.org.uk/Research/Pub/ArchCant/002-1859/16/Arch%20Cant%202-16a.pdf |title=Notices of Kent Worthies, Caxton |journal=Archaeologia Cantiana |publisher=Kent Archaeological Society |year=1859 |volume=2 |pages=231–33 |author=L.B.L.}}</ref> Oral tradition in [[Tonbridge]] claims that Caxton was born there; the same with Tenterden.<ref name=Hadlow/> One of the manors of Hadlow was Caustons, owned by the Caxton (De Causton) family.<ref name=AC1859/> A house in Hadlow reputed to be the birthplace of William Caxton was dismantled in 1936 and incorporated into a larger house rebuilt in [[Forest Row]], [[East Sussex]].<ref name=Hadlow>{{cite book | year = 2007| title = Hadlow, Life, Land & People in a Wealden Parish 1460 ~ 1600| editor = Joan Thirsk| pages = 107–109| publisher = Kent Archaeological Society| isbn = 978-0-906746-70-7| url = http://www.kentarchaeology.ac/publications/1460%20-%20Web%20edition%202007%20March.PDF}}</ref> Further evidence for Hadlow is that various place names nearby are frequently mentioned by Caxton.<ref name=AC1859/>

Caxton was in London by 1438, when the registers of the [[Worshipful Company of Mercers|Mercers' Company]] record his apprenticeship to [[Robert Large]], a wealthy London mercer or dealer in luxury goods, who served as Master of the Mercers' Company, and [[Lord Mayor of London]] in 1439. After Large died in 1441, Caxton was left a small sum of money (£20). As other apprentices were left larger sums, it would seem that he was not a senior apprentice at this time.