Robert Besley

Robert Besley (1794–1876) was an English typographer, creator of Clarendon (typeface) in 1845 and the Lord Mayor of London in 1869.

Career[]

Besley was taken into partnership by William Thorowgood at the Fann Street Foundry in Fann Street, City of London in 1838, having been employed as a traveller there since 1826.^[1] He worked with Thorowgood until the latter's retirement in 1849. Thorowgood had been the first to use the term "Grotesque" to describe a Sans-Serif typeface and the first to design one in lower case with Seven Line Grotesque.^[2]^[3]

When Besley created Clarendon in October 1845 he had it registered under the recently passed Ornamental Designs Act of 1842.,^[4] but the typeface became so popular that its rights were soon broken by people creating knock-offs, though Clarendon is still known as the first Registered typeface.^[5]

Besley retired from the type-founding business in 1861^[6] and went on to become Sheriff of the City of London in 1863 and the Lord Mayor of London in 1869.

References[]

^ A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, Talbot Baines Reed, 1887
^ The First Sans Serif Graphic Design History, 2011. Retrieved 16 July 2014.
^ Alexander Lawson's Anatomy of a Typeface on Google Books
^ Anthony Camp, On the City's Edge: a history of Fann Street, London (2016) 24-31; the design was not patented.
^ Article Archived 2008-08-23 at the Wayback Machine on Popperfont.com, Fontlove section, by David Ng. Citing a thesis essay from Mitja Miklavcic, 2006.^{[dead link]}
^ Anthony Camp, On the city's edge: a history of Fann Street, London (2016) 24-31.