Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Cluer Dicey (see here),
He
mar 7 Oct 1738 to Mary Nutshawe [or Maria, of Cheshire].
She is "Mary" consistently in all children's baptisms.
He lived in London.
His children were bapt in parish of St. Mary le Bow, London, in 1739 to 1750.
He greatly expanded the business with his father.
Aldermary Churchyard:
In 1753 the Diceys took on a new partner, Richard Marshall.
With Marshall they opened a second printing shop in Aldermary Churchyard, London,
in 1754.
Aldermary Churchyard was
a bit SE of the Bow Church Yard premises
(see map
and modern
street view).
Also listed as "no.4, Aldermary Church Yard, Bow Lane".
Richard Marshall lived at the premises.
For exact location of the Aldermary Churchyard press, see
[Stoker, 2014, p.114].
1754 catalogue:
Cluer printed a catalogue
with his father in 1754.
His father died 1756.
Cluer inherited the business.
Continued in both printing and patent medicines.
Mary dies, 1761:
She died Tue 3 Feb 1761, at Northampton
[Daily Advertiser, Fri 6 Feb 1761].
The young (22 year old) James Boswell visited Bow Church Yard in July 1763. He made a visit to: "the old printing-office in Bow Church-yard kept by Dicey, whose family have kept it four score years. There are ushered into the world of literature "Jack and the Giants", "The Seven Wise Men of Gotham", and other story-books which in my dawning years amused me as much as "Rasselas" does now".
In 1763, Cluer closed the printing office at Bow Church Yard, which now became dedicated to the medicine business.
Printing moved to the Aldermary Churchyard office.
1764 catalogue:
Cluer printed a 1764 catalogue with Richard Marshall.
It shows they printed a range of maps, prints, music and
chapbooks,
"Printed and sold by Cluer Dicey, and Richard Marshall
at the printing office, in Aldermary Churchyard, London".
[Simmons, 2000] says:
"The 1764 catalogue .. was probably larger than any catalogue categorising and listing cheap maps, images and texts that had up to then appeared in the British Isles
or probably in any European country."
Note
says the 1764 catalogue
"is an important source for the study of the lower end of the eighteenth-century book and publishing trade."
His company were the first printers of the nursery rhyme
Simple Simon (1764).
He
owned until his death the Northampton Mercury newspaper,
which his father had founded.
In 1765 he purchased
Claybrooke Hall, Leicestershire
(some distance NW of Northampton).
The conveyance of Claybrooke Hall and lands from George Byrd to Cluer Dicey
is dated 11 Oct 1767.
The family ended their printing business in London.
There is no evidence of Dicey involvement in printing at Aldermary Churchyard after 1770
[Stoker, 2014].
Marshall and Co. continued to print at
Aldermary Churchyard
and became a huge operation.
Dicey printing continued in Northampton.
Also Dicey ownership of the Northampton Mercury newspaper.
And the patent medicine business in London.
His will is
dated 17 Sept 1772.
He is at Claybrooke.
The will
refers to Dicey business still at Bow Church Yard (patent medicine).
Cluer dies, 1775:
He died 3 October 1775, age 60 yrs, at Claybrooke.
His will says he is to be buried with his wife.
But if she died before he came to Claybrooke,
then he is apparently not buried at Claybrooke.
Memorial to him in St. Peter's Church, Claybrooke Parva (opposite Claybrooke Hall).
The epitaph suggests he is buried here.
Though, as we just explained, his will suggests he is buried elsewhere.
Dicey in DNB
and [Burkes LG]
think he was bur Claybrooke, though they may be just going by the memorial.
The religious writer
Hannah More
(a friend of the family)
wrote an epitaph to him,
which was inscribed on his memorial tablet.
Will pr 16 November 1775,
Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
Cluer and Mary
had issue:
Extract from
DICEY in [Burkes LG, 1875].
View of Covent Garden.
Print made by Cluer Dicey
("C. Dicey and Co."), c.1750.
Church on LHS.
The house of Sir Thomas Orby
is straight ahead here, in
the arcaded building in the centre-left.
From British Museum.
The 1763 visit of
James Boswell to Cluer Dicey's business in London.
From
Boswell's diary entry of 10 July 1763
(though the visit was "some days" earlier).
From p.299
of
Boswell's London Journal, 1762-1763,
Yale University Press, 2004.
The printer's name,
"C. Dicey & Co."
on a map of the Promised Land and Jerusalem,
printed by Cluer Dicey, c.1765.
At this point the printing is all at
Aldermary Churchyard.
See larger.
For sale at Barry Lawrence Ruderman.
A 1691 engraving of
John Sharp, Archbishop of York.
Reprinted by
"C. Dicey & Co." in
Aldermary Churchyard (would be in 1756-1770).
See larger.
From NPG.
Epitaph
to Cluer Dicey (died 1775),
by Hannah More, on the above memorial.
"Life has no length, Eternity no end!"
From
The works of Hannah More, with a memoir and notes, Hannah More,
1834, vol.6, p.12.
Also in
The Works of Hannah More: Including Several Pieces Never Before Published, Hannah More,
1818, vol.1, p.148.
Also in
The Works of Hannah More, Hannah More,
1835, vol.6, p.415.
St. Peter's Church, Claybrooke Parva.
Photo 2007 by
Mat Fascione.
See terms of use.
See 2014 photo.
See street view.
Says the pieman to Simple Simon,
"Show me first your penny."
Says Simple Simon to the pieman,
"Indeed I have not any."
Simple Simon
(1764).
Cluer Dicey was the first printer of this nursery rhyme.
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