Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
Genealogy research by Mark Humphrys.
William Dicey,
Move to London:
He went to London.
He worked with his brother-in-law John Cluer in London for a time.
He is described as a "printer" at mar 1711.
William was
apprenticed as a
"leather seller" for 7 years to John Sewers, of the London Leathersellers Company, 17 April 1711.
See indenture
from
here in
London, Freedom of the City Admission Papers.
He was "turned over" to John
Cluer before the 7 years were up (before 1718).
His son was born 1719
in St Giles Cripplegate parish, London.
Though baptised in St Mary-le-Bow church (Bow Church Yard).
By 1719 he was an experienced printer, and he moved into the new business of provincial newspapers.
In 1719 he established the St Ives Mercury newspaper,
in
St Ives, Cambridgeshire.
He settled in
Northampton.
His son is bapt in Northampton in Jan 1721.
He became a freeman of the Leathersellers Company on 7 August 1721, although he seems never to have practiced this trade.
His brother-in-law
John Cluer joined him in the patent medicine business in 1722.
John sold the medicine in London.
In 1722, William and Robert Raikes
founded the Gloucester Journal.
First issue 9 April 1722.
This was the first press in Gloucester.
He and Raikes divided the newspaper business in Sept 1725.
Raikes became owner of the Gloucester Journal.
William became owner of the Northampton Mercury.
He built up a successful business in Northampton, as a printer and seller of
books and maps and prints.
Also a successful patent medicine business.
In 1726 the patent for "Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops" was re-issued to Okell, Dicey, Raikes and Cluer.
John Cluer's will
mentions the Letters Patent of 31 March, 12 George I.
This is 31 March 1726.
William's son was bapt at Northampton in Apr 1726.
He moved the Northampton Mercury to larger premises at 11 The Parade, Market Hill, Northampton, in 1728.
(Market Hill is apparently the old name for Market Square,
or mainly the S side of Market Square.)
John Cluer died in 1728.
Elizabeth re-married in 1729.
She and her 2nd husband continued running the Cluer business in London.
In 1733, William purchased a large house at
Market Hill, Northampton for £500
[Neuburg, 1969].
The Dicey business sold patent medicines throughout Britain and Ireland.
They sold Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops
to the
American colonies
from at least 1733.
They also sold to
Antigua.
See
[Simmons, 2000].
Takes over Bow Church Yard, London, business, 1736:
In Nov 1736,
William
took over the running of the former John Cluer business in London
from his sister Elizabeth and her 2nd husband.
William's son Cluer joined him in the business
and was sent to London to run the business there.
The Diceys
erected a temporary printing press on the frozen River Thames in London
during the Frost Fair at
Queenhithe
in 1740
[Stoker, 2014, p.150].
Mary dies, 1748:
She died 28 Dec 1748.
She was bur 1 Jan 1749, All Saints' Church, Northampton.
See burial entry
from here.
1754 catalogue:
William and his son Cluer printed a catalogue of their publications
in 1754.
It shows they printed a range of maps, prints, music and
chapbooks:
"Printed and sold by William and Cluer Dicey, at their warehouse, opposite the south door of Bow-church in Bow-Church-yard".
They were
"easily the most important figures of their time in popular publishing"
[DNB].
[Simmons, 2000]
says:
"The Diceys are well known to print and book historians. No other producers of cheap print
operated on the scale suggested by the Catalogue
and the family has generally been regarded as its"
[cheap print's]
"most important printers and sellers in the eighteenth century to about the 1790s."
[Neuburg, 1969]
notes
the Dicey business sold reading material to the poorer classes around England,
among whom literacy was increasing across the 18th century.
He says the Dicey family are important figures in the growth of a literate public in England.
William purchased a new property in Northampton in 1754
[Neuburg, 1969].
His will dated 3 Apr 1755.
He is a Leather Seller, citizen of London, now living Northampton.
His will says he still has a one third share of "Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops".
The minutes of the
Northampton Hospital
committee for 15 Nov 1755
show that
Mr. Dicey, owner of the Northampton Mercury,
agreed to insert items of news for the hospital occasionally for free.
(Later, in 1764, his daughter married a surgeon at the hospital.)
William dies, 1756:
He died 2 Nov 1756, Northampton, age 65 yrs.
He was bur 7 Nov 1756,
All Saints' Church, Northampton.
See burial entry
from here.
His will pr 20 April 1757, Prerogative Court of Canterbury.
William and Mary had issue:
Extract from
DICEY in [Burkes LG, 1875].
Marriage of William Dicey, 6 Apr 1711.
An ad for
Dr. Bateman's Pectoral Drops, 1728.
Sold by John Cluer in Bow Churchyard, London,
and by William Dicey in Northampton,
and by Robert Raikes in Gloucester.
From British Museum.
An impressive colour print of Charles I.
After a 1633 portrait.
Print made by "William Dicey and Company, in Bow-Church-Yard" (before 1756).
Possibly made at the time of the
Jacobite rising
1745.
From British Museum.
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