Richard Clay (1789 - 1877)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Richard Clay I (1789-1877), printer, born in Cambridge, England. He apprenticed to Richard Watts, then University Printer John Smith at the Pitt Press. He began his own business with various partners in 1817 at No. 9 Devonshire Street, Bishops-gate. The partnership of Samuel Burton, Richard Clay and Samuel Smith dissolved 1822. The partnership of Samuel Burton, Richard Clay, and Henry Batty dissolved in 1824. He then was “House of Richard Clay & Co. Ltd” at Devonshire, Bishops-gate. He moved to the Bread Street Hill address about 1830.

His son, Charles John Clay (1827-1905), Trinity College, set up in Cambridge as University Printer and Partner, C. J. Clay and Son Cambridge University Press. Another son, Richard Clay II (1839-1890), was apprenticed to brother Charles. Joseph Taylor became a partner in 1857. And it became R. Clay, Sons and Taylor. The Taylor partnership ceased in 1885. [Source: The Bookbinder, Vol. 4, London: Raithby, Lawernce and Co. LTD., 1891].