Awnsham Churchill

Awnsham Churchill (1658–1728) was an English bookseller and Whig radical, a Member of Parliament in the reign of Queen Anne.

The son of William Churchill of Dorchester, Dorset, and brother of the MPs Joshua Churchill and William Churchill, he was apprenticed to George Sawbridge. With another brother, John, he then entered into business as booksellers and stationers at the sign of the Black Swan in Paternoster Row, London. At the beginning of 1680 he signed a petition to the king asking for the recall of parliament; and in 1682 he published a sermon of Samuel Bold against persecution.

In the mid-1680s the Churchill brothers were involved in the opposition to James II of England, visiting Amsterdam and consorting with those supporting Monmouth's Rebellion. He was arrested in 1687 for printing Gaspar Fagel's Letter, which outlined the position on religious toleration of the Prince of Orange.

Churchill was later stationer to William III of England, as the Prince became in 1689, and a leading bookseller of his time. He amassed a fortune, and was able to purchase, in 1704, the manor of Higher Henbury in Dorset from John Morton, and that of West Ringstead from James Huishe in 1723.

Member of Parliament for Dorchester between 1705 and 1710, Churchill was distantly related to the other Dorchester member John Churchill; and also was related to the Duke of Marlborough, but had little to do with him. He was closer to George Churchill, the Duke's brother.

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