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The company expanded in 1823 with the purchase of Northumberland Court and the installation of its first [[Steam engine|steam-powered]] [[Printing press|press]]es (made by [[Applegath and Cowper]]). However, the new noisy presses disturbed the [[Duke of Northumberland]], whose palace was nearby, and he ordered the company to cease operation. When Clowes refused, the case was tried in court in June 1824, where the printer won with the help of his attorney [[John Copley, 1st Baron Lyndhurst|John Copley]]. Clowes agreed to move the presses though in exchange for a sum paid by the Duke. The exchange proved fruitful for Clowes, as the bankruptcy of [[Archibald Constable]] caused a short period of bad business that afflicted the London publishing industry; the Duke's compensation helped offset the large losses Clowes experienced during this time.
In 1826, the company purchased and moved to premises on Duke Street that had previously been occupied by Applegath and Cowper. Because Clowes' sons increasingly became involved in the company, he changed the name of the company to William Clowes & Sons in 1839. The firm grew rapidly, and by 1843, it was one of the largest printing companies in the world: it operated 24 presses and had its own [[Typesetting|type and stereotype]] foundries, 2500 tonnes of stereotyped plates (at the time worth at least 500,000 [[Pound sterling|pounds sterling]]), and a collection of 80,000 [[woodcut]]s. In 1847, Clowes died, and three of his sons, William Clowes the younger (1807–1883), Winchester, and George, took over running the company. In 1851, the company secured a large contract to print half a million catalogues for the [[Great Exhibition]]. The project involved the use of 50 tonnes of type, 30,000 reams of paper and three tonnes of ink.
In 1873, William Clowes the younger's eldest son, William Archibald Clowes (1843–1904), and his nephew William Charles Knight Clowes (1838–1917) entered a partnership with William Moore, who operated Caxton Press in [[Beccles]], [[Suffolk]]. Although Moore suddenly disappeared, leaving a considerable debt, the firm survived and was re-established as Clowes and Clowes. It grew from operating four presses to 15 in just three years. In 1880, Clowes and Clowes merged with William Clowes & Sons to form William Clowes Ltd.
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