Roxey Ann Caplin (c. 1793 – 2 August 1888) was a British writer and inventor.

Biography

She was born in about 1793 in British North America. Around 1835, she married Jean Francois Isidore Caplin (c.1790-c.1872). From 1839, Caplin was a

corsetmaker A corsetmaker is a specialist tailor who makes corsets. Corsetmakers are frequently known by the French equivalent terms corsetier (male) and corsetière (female). Staymaker is an obsolete name for a corsetmaker. Design and distribution The bes ...

working at 58

Berners Street Berners Street is a thoroughfare located to the north of Oxford Street in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, originally developed as a residential street in the mid-18th century by property developer William Berners (property d ...

, London. At the

Great Exhibition The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary structure in which it was held), was an international exhibition that took ...

in 1851, she was awarded the prize medal of "Manufacturer, Designer and Inventor" for her corsetry designs. The corsets from the Great Exhibition in 1851 are in the Museum of London. In 1860, she became a member of the

Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, commonly known as the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), is a learned society that champions innovation and progress across a multitude of sectors by fostering creativity, s ...

(RSA). By 1864, she had filed 24 patents. She died on 2 August 1888 at Cambridge Lodge, St Leonard's

East Sheen East Sheen, also known as Sheen, is a suburb in south-west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. Its long High Street, high street has shops, offices, restaurants, cafés, pubs and suburban supermarkets and is also the economic ...

in Surrey. Her effects were valued at £6452, a considerable estate for a tradesman in this period.

''Madame Caplin''

How shall the poet, in a single lay, the glory of her age and time portray? Suffice if for the wondering world to mark She took from all beside the medal in Hyde Park; The only prize that was for corsets given to any manufacturer under heaven. Lo! the dazzling splendours of her fame advance O'er 'All England' and the whole of France She, the beloved, who now fills Brunswick's throne Deals with Madame Caplin – her alone; Why need I paint the heroine of my lays, Or tell the land where passed her virgin days; 'Twas Canada!'-above all colonies renowned— that heard my heroine's praises first resound, You'll an incarnation of the graces meet at No. 58 in Berners Street. Science and pure benevolence combined, A deity in human form enshrined; Gracious demeanour, and courtly mien, Learning and worth are thine, great Native queen.

Selected works

* ''Health and Beauty: or, Woman and Her Clothing, Considered in Relation to the Physiological Laws of the Human Body'' (1850); * ''Health and Beauty'' – 1854 version. * ''Health and Beauty'' – 1856 version * ''Health and Beauty'' – 1864 version. * ''Woman and Her Wants; Four Lectures To Ladies'' (1860); Opinions of the press. * ''Women in the Reign of the Queen Victoria'' (1876) with J. Mill.

References

Sources

* * Kelly's London Postal Directory, London, 1859–62; Times, London, 4 August 1888, p. 1. * Health and Beauty 1856 * Health and Beauty 1864 * Dummy for Stays; designs, no. 669 year 1841 * The Hygean or Corporifom Corset; usefuld designs, no. 1995 year 1849 * S. Levitt, Victorians unbuttoned: registered designs for clothing, their makers and wearers, 1839–1900 (1986), 26–30 * R. A. Caplin, Health and beauty, or, Corsets and clothing (1856) * R. A. Caplin, The needle: its history and utility (1860) * R. A. Caplin and J. Mill, Women in the reign of Queen Victoria

876 __NOTOC__ Year 876 ( DCCCLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * At the invitation of Benevento, the newly-restored Byzantine fleet appears in the waters off Otranto. On th ...

* J. F. I. Caplin, Selection of documents and autograph letters in testimony of the cures effected by the electro-chemical bath of J. F. I. Caplin (1865) * J. F. I. Caplin, 'Prospectus of the Manchester Hygiaenic Gymnasium', Catalogue of the works exhibited in the British section of the exhibition ... together with exhibitors' prospectuses, 10 (1856) * J. T. S. Lidstone, The Londoniad: a grand national poem on the arts (1856) * registered design, 1841, TNA: PRO, BT 42, no. 669 * registered design, 1849, TNA: PRO, BT 45, no. 1995 * PO street directories, London, Mortlake, and Manchester * census returns for Mortlake, 1881 * d. cert. Likenesses C. Silvy, photograph, c.1864, reproduced in Caplin, Selection of documents · photogravure photograph, c.1875, reproduced in Caplin and Mill, Women in the reign of Queen Victoria Wealth at death £6452 19s. 10d.: probate, 5 September 1888, CGPLA England & Wales *

External links

from Godey's Lady's Book in March 1854
*

RSA, Female Membership 1754–1954

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caplin, Roxey Ann Women of the Victorian era English inventors 19th-century English women writers 19th-century English writers 1790s births 1888 deaths English feminists Corsetmakers 19th-century women inventors Immigrants to the United Kingdom 19th-century English businesspeople 19th-century English businesswomen