Thomas Constable

Thomas Constable was born on 29 June 1812 in Craigcrook Castle, west of Edinburgh. He was the fourth son of the Scottish publisher, bookseller and stationer Archibald David Constable (1774–1827) and Mary, daughter of David Willison.

In his youth he studied printing under the tutelage of Mr. Charles Richards of St. Martin's Lane, London and then returned to Edinburgh to establish his own printing business. Following the death of his father Archibald in 1827, Thomas took over his father's printing, publishing and bookselling business in 1833 and moved the business to 11 Thistle Street, New Town, Edinburgh. In conformity with his late father's wishes, Thomas continued the publishing programme that was already under way, issuing new books on "practical" topics such as history, geography, engineering and travel accounts, and issuing new volumes in his father's Constable's Miscellany book series. Thomas also continued and expanded the Edinburgh printing business of his grandfather, David Willison (father-in-law of Archibald Constable).

In 1835 he became the His Majesty's Printer and Publisher in Edinburgh (which gave him the privilege of Acts of Parliaments, Edicts, Proclamations, and other papers" but did not give him a monopoly of printing the Bible in Scotland as had formerly been the case) and four years later he was appointed Printer to the University of Edinburgh.

In the 1830s he printed small circulars, legal works and work for learned societies. He also printed books for the publishers Robert Caddell and Adam and Charles Black.

Beginning in the early 1840s Thomas Constable began printing periodicals and magazines for various markets. Those included the Edinburgh Ladies Magazine, the Children's Missionary Record, the British Mothers' Magazine, the Bulwark, or Reformist Journal, and reports from the Free Church of Scotland's Women's Home Missionary Society. He also printed the Northern British Review and the Scottish Jurist.

On 14 October 1837 Constable married Lucia Anna Cowan, the daughter of Alexander Cowan, a papermaker in Valleyfield, Penicuik. Their children included Archibald David Constable (1843–1915), who had been named after his grandfather.

He died on 26 May 1881 at "Marston Biggot Rectory, the residence of his brother, the Rev. John Constable".