Note 4 — Chapter III
Reading edition
It is very improbable that Caxton was born in 1412, as nearly all his biographers state, but about ten or twelve years later. Evidence of this is contained in the records preserved at Mercers' Hall, Cheapside, London, where his name is inscribed as having been apprenticed in the year 1438, the age at which apprenticeship was entered upon being most commonly between twelve and fourteen years.