Jacob Ilive (1705–1763)

ILIVE (JACOB), printer and typefounder in London, Aldersgate Street, over against Aldersgate Coffee-house, 1730; (2) London House, Aldersgate, 1746. 1730–63. Son of T. Ilive, printer [1724]. With his two brothers, Abraham and Isaac, set up a letter-foundry in Aldersgate Street about 1730. It was only a small one, and no specimen of its types is known. Rowe-Mores in his Dissertation upon English Typographical Founders and Foundries, 1778, says that it produced a nonpareil Greek fount, and founts of roman and italic in various sizes. He gave up letter-founding in 1740, when the contents of the foundry were sold to John James. Ilive, however, continued in business as a printer until his death in 1763. It is said that he was disordered in his mind. He held extreme religious views, and wrote and published several pamphlets in support of them. In consequence of an attack upon Bishop Sherlock in one of these he was imprisoned for two years [1756–8] in Clerkenwell Bridewell, and during his confinement wrote Reasons offered for the Reformation of the House of Correction in Clerkenwell, published in 1757. He was also the author of a literary forgery, The Book of Jasher, said to have been translated by Alcuin. He finished up a remarkable life with an attack upon the Company of Stationers, which failed in its object. [T. B. Reed, A History of the Old English Letter Foundries, pp. 346–9.]