John Morgan Richards

Who was John Morgan Richards?

John Morgan Richards, was an American businessman and entrepreneur who made his fortune from the promotion of patent medicines and American cigarettes in Britain. He was the father of the novelist Pearl Mary Teresa Craigie.

Richards was born in Aurora, Cayuga County, New York, the son of Dr James Richards, a Presbyterian minister of English descent, and Elizabeth Beals.

A Boston resident in adulthood, he married Laura Hortense Arnold in 1863, and moved to London permanently in 1867, though retaining his American citizenship all his life.

His best known business achievement was a major and successful marketing campaign from 1877 onward to popularise the cigarette in Britain. This was achieved through "vigorous advertising and some ingenious and original methods of trade promotion" such as offering chemists an incentive - he would pay for their tobacco trading license - if they supplied his cigarettes, Allen & Ginter's Virginia-made "Richmond Gems". He also marketed the patent medicines Carter's Little Liver Pills and Dr. Williams' Pink Pills for Pale People.

He was chairman of the American Society in London, and a member of the Reform Club.