BARACLOUGH, John (1759-1841) — Nuneaton
Letterpress & copperplate printer, bookseller, stationer, news-vendor, engraver, proprietor of a circulating library and a music warehouse, etc. Produced An exact representation of the Battle of the Nile 1798 — an engraved plan set within descriptive and decorative letterpress. Also known for printed music, etc.
Baptised at Horsley, Derbyshire, 4 Mar 1759, the son of Samuel Baraclough (1733-1786) of Hill Top, and his wife Mary Cresswell (1736-1791), who had married the previous year. The family subsequently moved to Nuneaton, Warwickshire. He married Ann Finch or Hinch (1766?-1832), with whom he had a number of children, at Nuneaton 4 May 1783. Succeeded in the 1830s by a son, also John Baraclough (1801-1869), trading in Abbey Street. Died 9 Apr 1841 at the age of eighty-two and was buried at St. Nicholas, Nuneaton 15 Apr 1841 — “he was a printer for 50 years, and Superintendent of the Church Sunday School for 25 years” (Coventry Standard, 16 Apr 1841). Baraclough is said to have been the model for Mr. Proctor in George Eliot’s ‘Scenes of clerical life’ (1858).
Mill Lane, Nuneaton — 1800
Abbey Street, Nuneaton — 1841
Alexander. BBTI. BM. BNA. Humphries & Smith. LHD.