Records were created following DACS conventions.
Thomas Cadell was born in Bristol on 12 November 1742 to William and Mary Cadell. At the age of fifteen, he became an apprentice to the eminent London bookseller and publisher Andrew Millar. In London, he rose to prominence as the publisher of some of the most successful works of the eighteenth century, including many by Samuel Johson, Edward Gibbon, and Fanny Burney.
At the age of twenty-one, Cadell became Millar's partner; two years later, he took over the business when Millar retired. Cadell maintained the business in the same location in the Strand and is said also to have carried on Millar's inclination towards generous payments to authors. Where Millar had given financial support to Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language, Cadell gave Mrs. Piozzi five hundred for her Letters to Samuel Johnson. On occasion, he partnered with other emininent booksellers, including William and (later) Andrew Strahan.
The list of clients Cadell served amounts to a summary of influential authors of the time. In 1770, he issued David Hume's Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects; from 1776-1788, he published Edward Gibbon's multi-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. From 1787 on, he published the poetry of Robert Burns. He was also a friend of Samuel Johnson and published several of his works, including The Works of English Poets. Other authors who published with Cadell included Fanny Burney, Hannah More, Hester Piozzi, Adam Smith, and Tobias Smollett.
It was the comfort of his position as a publisher that allowed Cadell to marry the daughter of the Reverend Thomas Jones on 1 April 1769. They had two children: a daughter who married the chaplain to King George III, Dr. Charles Lucas Eldridge, and a son, Thomas Cadell the younger. It was to his son as well as his assistant, William Davies, that Cadell turned over his business upon his retirement in 1793. Even in retirement, Cadell remained an active member of society: he was a governor of the Foundling Hospital, treasurer of the Asylum, master of the Stationers' Company, and alderman and sheriff for the ward of Walbrook in the City of London. Cadell died of an asthma attack on 27 December 1802.
Highlights of Cadell's publishing career:
Published her works.
Firm began when Cadell bequeathed his business his son, Thomas Cadell the younger (1773-1836) and assistant, William Davies (d. 1820).
Published Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire giving him nearly two-thirds of profits from sales.
Friend and publisher of Johnson.
First an apprentice to and later a business partner to Millar; named an executor when Millar died in 1768.
Published her works.
Published his works.
Occasional partner with Strahan.
Contains: Receipt for the profits from the first and second editions of Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire; also signed by Thomas Cadell.