John Francis (publisher)

The family was nonconformist, in the congregation of the Independent minister James Knight at Collier's Rents in Southwark from 1791.

[1] Having served his time with Marlborough, in September 1831 Francis joined the staff of the Athenæum magazine as a junior clerk; by October he was its business manager and publisher.

Early in his business career he encountered the heavy fiscal restrictions on the newspaper press, and he took an active and prominent part in trying to remove these "taxes on knowledge": the advertisement duty of 1s.

During the extended campaign he took part in deputations to government ministers, and was the effective founder of the Association for the Repeal of the Paper Duty, on behalf of which he visited Edinburgh and Dublin in company with John Cassell and Henry Vizetelly.

In 1863 his services were recognised, at 47 Paternoster Row, by a testimonial from the press and the Association for the Repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge.