John Baskerville, William Hutton and their Social Networks

This chapter considers Baskerville’s social networks and compares him with another self-educated ‘rough diamond’, the local historian and businessman, William Hutton. It explores how Baskerville benefited from connections with those individuals who provided him with status, identity and support in helping him to realise his ambitions. He also mixed with individuals who had received more formal education, including the Oxford-educated William Shenstone, the poet and landscape designer, and Robert Dodsley, the publisher. They helped to shape his choice of books to print and his wider publishing activities. The chapter concludes that Baskerville, like Hutton, had confidence to experiment with new ideas, outside of formal institutions.