John Capper (editor)

[2] Capper had some journalistic experience as co-editor of The Mining and Steam Navigation Gazette, and founded The Ceylon Magazine, which ran from 1840 to 1842.

It was a serious, scholarly magazine, which served to bring together a group of like-minded individuals who in 1845 formed the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, with Capper as treasurer.

Capper returned to London, where he threw himself into journalistic activity: he wrote articles on Ceylon for Charles Dickens' Household Words (uncredited, as was Dickens' custom), and The Emigrant's Guide to Australia chiefly aimed at hopeful diggers, the Australian gold rush then being in full swing.

Next came The Three Presidencies of India: A History of the Rise and Progress of the British Indian Possessions, which enjoyed a considerable market and praise from critics.

On 13 June 1859 in St Leonards Church, Shoreditch, Middlesex, England, he married Sarah Ann Richards (1831-1911).