Cluer Dicey (28 January 1715 – 3 October 1775) was an English newspaper proprietor, publisher of street literature, printseller and patent medicine seller, in London and later in Northampton.
Cluer was born 28 January 1715 at London, the son of William Dicey (1690- 1756) and Mary his wife (nee Atkins).
In March 1738 William and Cluer were sued in the Court of Chancery by the London Stationers Company for breaching their monopoly of 'Psalters, Primmers, Almanacs, Prognostications and Predictions.
During the 1740s and early 1750s Cluer Dicey expanded the London operation to become the principal British publishers of street literature (broadside ballads, chapbooks, slip songs).
[6] The publishing side of the partnership took on a new junior partner, Richard Marshall, with a 25% interest in 1753 and opened a second printing shop in Aldermary Churchyard in 1754.
[8] William and Cluer also became important publishers of popular prints, concentrating on the lower end of the market, both commissioning new plates and buying up and republishing old ones.
[10] William Dicey died 2 November 1756,[11] leaving Cluer his London business interests, subject to his paying £1500 in annuities to his sisters Ann, Mary and Charlotte, and £500 to his brother Robert.
[16] At the same time, the Dicey family retained sole control of the medicinal side of the business On 27 March 1770 a warrant was issued in the Court of Common Pleas against Cluer Dicey and Richard Marshall, complaining that they had infringed the copyright of Robert Sayer: this is the last known reference to the partnership.