He made some unfortunate decisions, and the result of these plus his own irregular habits (and drinking) and the way he ran his business, caused him to get into debt, until eventually he became a bankrupt and as such ended up in a debtors' prison.
Once in London in 1812, the family moved into lodgings in a court off Drury Lane, where they were joined by John in 1812 on his release, but the accommodation was to prove temporary.
And the customers who were connected with the catchpenny trade and who frequented his place of business were, in the main, vagrants, miscreants, and the underclasses of society.
After the Napoleonic war, many printers cashed in on the public's demand for news and printed small penny papers, each with a topical story.
In 1818 James Catnach printed an edition on a small sheet in which he suggested that certain local butchers in Drury Lane had received two human bodies which they intended to sell as pork.
In the ensuing court case he eventually pleaded guilty and was sent to Clerkenwell Prison for 6 months, during which time his mother and sisters manned the presses.
It consisted of the "Lion Inn", a disused public house and its grounds at Dancer's Hill, South Mimms, near Barnet in Middlesex, leaving the business to his sister (now) Mrs. Anne (baptised Nancy) Ryle.
He kept in touch, helped out the family by providing firstly utensils, later paying off the rent arrears and whilst John was in hospital, by working at night-time to finish off the jobs on his books.