John Catnach (printer and publisher)

John Catnach (1769–1813) was a Scottish born Geordie printer and publisher of the late 18th and early 19th century.

John Catnach was born in Burntisland, a former Royal burgh in Fife, Scotland in 1769. His father was the possessor of some Powder mills.

He started work as a bound apprentice to his uncle, Sandy Robinson., a printer in Edinburgh, and on completion of his apprenticeship, moved to Berwick-upon-Tweed in the late 1780s where he founded his own printing business, and then moving on to Alnwick a couple of years later, where he continued his print-shop.

The work produced by Catnach’s business was of very high quality, and at an early stage employed Thomas Bewick to provide the engraving works. Unfortunately John Catnach himself was not a businessman. He was declared bankrupt in 1801 and a sale of assets took place, the assets including about 1200 books were auctioned at Alnwick Town Hall on 2 March 1802, hence the sale advertised in a hand-bill, a rare copy of which is now in the National Library of Scotland

He managed to re- start in business and in 1807 he took an 2 apprentices, one was his son James, and another was a lad named Mark Smith, (see later); a few months afterwards he entered into partnership with William Davison to form Catnach and Davison. Unfortunately this partnership did not appear to work, as lasted not more than 2 years, after which it was dissolved. .

John Catnach (1769–1813) married in Berwick on Tweed (sometime in the late 1780s) Mary (née Hutchinson), (1766 – 24 Jan 1826) a native of Dundee, Scotland. John had been raised as a Roman Catholic and his wife as a Presbyterian, but in the baptismal records of St. Michael’s Church, Alnwick, she is described as a (religious) Dissenter. .

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