Robert Clavell (born in or before 1633 – died before 8 August 1711), was a bookseller of

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. He was born in

Steeple, Dorset Steeple is a hamlet and former civil parish, now in the civil parish of Steeple with Tyneham, in the English county of Dorset. It is situated west of the coastal resort town of Swanage at the foot of Ridgeway Hill. In 2013 the estimated popul ...

, of a branch of an old

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

shire family, being baptised there on 18 September 1632. Clavell was the author of a curious little treatise entitled ''His Majesties Propriety and Dominion on the British Seas asserted: together with a true Account of the Neatherlanders' Insupportable Insolencies, and Injuries they have committed; and the Inestimable Benefits they have gained in their Fishing on the English Seas: as also their Prodigious and Horrid Cruelties in the East and West Indies, and other Places. To which is added an exact Mapp, &c.'', octavo, London, 1665 (another edition, octavo, London, 1672). He is better known, however, as the central organiser of the

term catalogue A Term Catalogue (German: ''Messkatalog'') is a serial (literature), serial publication compiled to inform customers—most importantly book traders from other cities—of the book production as available on the book fairs. The first such catalogu ...

s that appeared in London between 1668 and 1711.

John Dunton John Dunton (4 May 1659 – 1733) was an English bookseller and writer. In 1691 he founded The Athenian Society to publish '' The Athenian Mercury'', the first major popular periodical and first miscellaneous periodical in England. In 1693, for ...

describes Clavell as "a great dealer, who has deservedly gained himself the reputation of a just man. Dr. Barlow, bishop of Lincoln, used to call him 'the honest bookseller'. He has been master of the Company of Stationers 698 and 1699 and perhaps the greatest unhappiness of his life was his being one of Alderman Cornish's jury" (''Life and Errors'', ed. 1818, i. 207). He died at

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

in 1711 (Probate Act Book, P.C.C., August 1711). His will, as "citizen and stationer of London", dated 17 April 1711, was proved on the following 8 August by Catherine Clavell, his widow (registered in P.C.C. 161, Young). Mrs. Clavell survived her husband until the close of 1717, dying in the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster (will registered in P.C.C. 227, Whitfield; Probate Act Book, P.C.C. December 1717).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clavell, Robert 1630s births 1711 deaths 17th-century English writers English booksellers People from Purbeck District Date of birth unknown Date of death unknown