Andrew Barclay (bookbinder)

Andrew Barclay, bookbinding trade label

Andrew Barclay (1737–1823) was a Scottish bookbinder who emigrated from Kinross, Fifeshire, to Boston in the British-American colonies in the mid-eighteenth century. As the American Revolutionary War drew near, Barclay sided with the Loyalists and was compelled to leave Boston when the British were driven out in March 1776. Upon leaving Boston he was assigned a command in charge of getting Loyalist refugees out of Boston to Nova Scotia. Soon after, he continued his trade in British-occupied New York for the duration of the war. Bookbinder's trade labels like Barclay's, found on the inside cover of some of his works, are considered a rarity among books printed in colonial America.[1][2][3]