John Nutt

Who was John Nutt?

Elizabeth Nutt and John Nutt were printers and booksellers and distributors in London in the early 18th century. John Nutt's most famous publication was the first three editions of Jonathan Swift's A Tale of a Tub, but he and Elizabeth were important both as publishers and sellers of many works of English law and literature.

John Nutt remains an obscure individual, with only his death well attested in 1716. Elizabeth Carr married John Nutt in 1692, and she was at that time already a practicing "mercury," or seller of newspapers and pamphlets. Independent of her husband, she is referred to as a significant and honest seller by John Dunton in 1705. She therefore brought a retailing business to the marriage, and John brought a printing house. The couple lived in the Savoy off of the Strand in London for nearly all of their adult lives, and they sold books, pamphlets, and news sheets by the Royal Exchange.

John Nutt had a shop in the Savoy at least by 1705, when he published Swift's first major satire the year before. That same year, he obtained an exclusive patent to print law books.