Robert Besley (1794–1876) was an English typographer, creator of

Clarendon (typeface) Clarendon is the name of a slab-serif typeface that was released in 1845 by Thorowgood and Co. (or Thorowgood and Besley) of London, a letter foundry often known as the Fann Street Foundry. The original Clarendon design is credited to Robert Besl ...

in 1845 and the

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional powe ...

in 1869.

Career

Besley was taken into partnership by

William Thorowgood William Thorowgood (died 1877) was a British typographer and type founder. On the death of its founder Robert Thorne in 1820, Thorowgood bought the Fann Street Foundry. He was active in the development of Sans Serif In typography and lette ...

at the

Fann Street Foundry The Fann Street Foundry was a type foundry (a company that designs or distributes typefaces) that was located on Fann Street, City of London. Establishment In 1794, Robert Thorne (typographer), Robert Thorne (1754-1820) acquired the type foundry ...

Fann Street Fann Street is a street in the City of London. It runs west–east, from its junction with Aldersgate Street and Goswell Road in the west, to the junction with Golden Lane in the east. In its original form of Fann's Alley the street was almo ...

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

in 1838, having been employed as a traveller there since 1826. He worked with Thorowgood until the latter's retirement in 1849. Thorowgood had been the first to use the term "

Grotesque Since at least the 18th century (in French and German as well as English), grotesque has come to be used as a general adjective for the strange, mysterious, magnificent, fantastic, hideous, ugly, incongruous, unpleasant, or disgusting, and thus ...

" to describe a

Sans-Serif In typography and lettering, a sans-serif, sans serif, gothic, or simply sans letterform is one that does not have extending features called "serifs" at the end of strokes. Sans-serif typefaces tend to have less stroke width variation than seri ...

typeface and the first to design one in lower case with ''Seven Line Grotesque''. When Besley created Clarendon in October 1845 he had it registered under the recently passed Ornamental Designs Act of 1842., 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. Besley retired from the type-founding business in 1861Anthony Camp, ''On the city's edge: a history of Fann Street, London'' (2016) 24-31. and went on to become

Sheriff of the City of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ju ...

in 1863 and the Lord Mayor of London in 1869.

References

External links

Image of Besley as Lord Mayor of LondonA political cartoon of Besley
and fellow members of the

Corporation of London The City of London Corporation, officially and legally the Mayor and Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London, is the municipal governing body of the City of London, the historic centre of London and the location of much of the United King ...

1794 births 1876 deaths Sheriffs of the City of London 19th-century lord mayors of London 19th-century English politicians English typographers and type designers {{Lord-Mayor-of-London-stub