Robert Sayer

Robert Sayer (1725–1794) was a leading publisher and seller of prints, maps, and maritime charts in Georgian Britain. He was based near Fleet Street in London. This was a business he had taken over from his brother in 1748 after he had won it by marrying the widowed daughter-in-law of another famous London map seller, John Overton.

After taking on his servant John Bennett as an apprentice in 1765, and later partnering up with him, the firm of Sayer and Bennett became one of the most important map houses of late 18th century Britain. From then on, the Sayer & Bennett firm was particularly well-known for their maps and atlases focusing on the Americas during a time of great upheaval and change (i.e. the French and Indian War, and especially the American Revolution).

In the beginning, many of these publications would have an obvious British slant, but as things progressed, Sayer increasingly realized the potential in creating reliable maps of an independent North America. Consequently, Sayer & Bennett produced some of the most significant charts and atlases of the British colonial possessions in America and later of the early United States.