Streater, John (c. 1620-1677), printer

John Streater was a soldier, printer, and political pamphleteer. He was born in Lewes and apprenticed to the printer Robert Hoskins on 4 Aug 1635. Streater’s apprenticeship was disrupted by the breakout of the English Civil War and he left printing to join the parliamentary army, only returning when he was wounded in combat. Streater therefore did not gain the freedom of the Company until 1644. He quickly thereafter rejoined the parliamentary army and served three years in Ireland. In London once again in 1653, Streater turned pamphleteer to protest Cromwell’s dissolution of the Rump Parliament. Inspired by great republican thinkers, like John Milton and James Harrington, Streater’s polemical pamphlets saw him imprisoned for a period. From 1660, he focused on building up his printing house, having as many as five presses at one time and his appeal to serve parliament as printer saw him rewarded with an exemption from the 1662 Printing Act. Streater spent the Restoration period working with Richard Atkyns to secure a patent for printing law books in defiance of the Stationers’ Company monopoly. Years of hard work came to nought and Streater died in debtors’ prison in 1677. Both his widow Susan and son Joseph continued the printing business and proved further nuisances to the authorities.

Birth: Lewes, Sussex

William Streater (father), tailor; Aaron Streater (brother); Thomas Streater (brother); Susan Streater (wife), printer; Joseph Streater (son), printer, freed by patrimony 1685

International Standard Archival Authority Record for Corporate Bodies, Persons and Families - ISAAR(CPF) 2nd edition - ICA 2004 ISBN 2-9521932-2-3

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Oxford Dictionary of National Biography