John Marshall (1756–1824) was a London publisher who specialized in children's literature, chapbooks, educational games and teaching schemes.

He was bound apprentice to the printer Edward Gilberd of Watling Street 3 September 1771, but transferred to his father's business a year later and became a freeman of the Stationers' Company on 6 October 1778.

Richard's firm was based on selling popular prints, maps, chapbooks, broadside ballads and other forms of street literature.

Richard had begun in the 1770s to publish children's books as a sideline; this side was greatly expanded by John and his partners after 1780.

Marshall recruited several new female authors and published some of the most important children's literature of the time,[11] notably: All of these went through several editions.

Some remained in print well into the 19th century, such as Cobwebs to Catch Flies, and The Life and Perambulation of a Mouse, which was praised by Sarah Trimmer and by Mary Wollstonecraft.

In 1787 the business opened a retail bookshop at 17 Queen Street, Cheapside (hitherto the Aldermary Churchyard premises had principally served as a wholesale supplier and printing office).

[citation needed] Like other printers and publishers of the time, Marshall was involved in selling patent medicines, although in his case these were aimed specifically at children.

He advertised "an improved preparation of Dr. Waite's Worm Medicine... impossible to distinguish it from the most agreeable Gingerbread Nut", from premises at 42, Long-lane, West Smithfield, in 1793.

His catalogue included this announcement: Ladies, Gentlemen, and the Heads of Schools, are requested to observe, that the beforementioned Publications are original,, and not compiled: as also, that they were written to suit the various Ages for which they are offered; but on a more liberal Plan, and in a different Style from the Generality of Works designed for young People: being entirely divested of that prejudicial Nonsense (to young Minds) the Tales of Hobgoblins, Witches, Fairies, Love, Gallantry, etc.

As Samuel Pickering, Jr., a scholar of 18th-century children's literature, explains, "He was a shrewd publisher and, reading the market well, he saw that instruction would sell.

While keeping a selection of old-fashioned, amusing books in print... he established a reputation as a printer of moral works.

"[24] Mary Jackson describes his strategy in sharper terms, saying he engaged in "apparent duplicity and sharp tricks", claiming he was a reforming publisher but issuing tales that had little moral redemption in the eyes of Trimmer, Fenn, Kilner, and others.

[24] Marshall learned from Anna Laetitia Barbauld's innovative children's literature and began to use large fonts and margins.