The Riddell Collection of Wax Seals:
Seal Life Stories: the remarkable careers of 23 individuals from the Riddell Collection of Wax Seals
12: robert Cadell (1788-1849)
Graham Fyvie, Robert Cadell and Robert Cunningham Graham Spiers by David Octavius Hill, and Robert Adamson. Calotype, 1843-1848 (National Portrait Gallery, London. Licence: Creative Commons NC by ND
Robert Cadell was born at Cockenzie House, Prestonpans, the son of John Cadell Esquire of Cockenzie and Mrs Mary Buchan. In 1807 he joined the publishing house of Archibald Constable & Co. of Edinburgh, becoming a partner in 1811 and sole partner with Constable in 1812.
In 1817 he married Elizabeth Constable, the daughter of his business partner, and her death a year later began a period of disagreement between the two which lasted until the company’s bankruptcy in 1826.
Archibald Constable & Co. had been Sir Walter Scott’s publisher up until the bankruptcy, and Scott decided to stay with Cadell, who was more cautious in his business dealings than Constable. Cadell would become Scott’s sole publisher at this point, helping to revive the novelist’s fortunes.
Robert Cadell remained in the publishing business until his death in 1849. He married again in 1821 to Anne Fletcher Mylne with whom he had ten children.