John Churchill (publisher)

John Spriggs Morss Churchill (1801–1875) was an English medical publisher.

The third son of the Rev. James Churchill (1770–1820), a dissenting minister, by his wife Mary née Morss (1775–1820), a daughter of George Morss, he was born at Ongar in Essex, 4 August 1801. He was educated at Henley grammar school, under the Rev. Dr. George Scobell.

In 1816 Churchill was bound an apprentice for seven years to Elizabeth Cox & Son, medical booksellers, of 39 High Street, Southwark. Having served his time he became a freeman of the Stationers' Company, and then for about eighteen months was employed in the house of Longman & Co.

With the fortune of his wife, whom he married in 1832, Churchill started in business on his own account, purchasing the old-established retail connection of Callow & Wilson, 16 Princes Street, Leicester Square. Churchill attended book sales and the sales of medical libraries all over the country, and issued an annual catalogue. The business increased, but not satisfactorily, owing to the new practice of "underselling" (discounting popular titles). Churchill therefore began to publish on his own account.

In 1854 Churchill removed from Princes Street to New Burlington Street, gave up retail trade, and concentrated on publishing. He built a house at Wimbledon in 1852; in 1861 he was made a county magistrate. He finally settled in 1862 at Pembridge Square, Bayswater.

For many years Churchill was an invalid; in July 1875 he went to Tunbridge Wells, where he died on 3 August He was buried in Brompton cemetery. The publishing business was carried on by his two sons, John and Augustus Churchill, to whom he had resigned it on retiring in 1870.

One of the earliest productions of his press was Robert Liston's Practical Surgery, 1837, of which there were repeated editions. This book carried a caduceus as Churchill's printer's mark. It has been suggested that, particularly through editions of Churchill's books in the US, the caduceus was adopted by misprision as a symbol of medicine, in place of the rod of Asclepius.

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