John Nutt (d. 1716; fl. 1691–1716)
John Nutt, printer and bookseller, fl. 1691–1716; near Stationers' Hall, or Juxta Basilicam Stationariorum / near Stationers' Hall, Stationers' Court; in the Savoy, 1708–1716. Died 24 May 1716. Nutt was apprenticed to Thomas Newcombe jnr. in 1684 and freed by Newcombe's widow in 1691. He lived with Edward Jones, printer, in the Savoy. Nutt was succeeded by his widow, Elizabeth Nutt (née Carr).
Michael Treadwell includes Nutt as one of "a small group of specialists who, for a fee, would put their names to and handle the sale and distribution of printed works 'tho the property [was) in another person'" from the 1670s to about the middle of the eighteenth century.
Throughout this period there were never fewer than two nor more than five of these specialist trade publishers, the two best-known and longest-surviving businesses being those 'near Stationers' Hall' which was operated successively from 1680 to the 1720s by Randal Taylor (1680–94), his son-in-law John Whitlock (1694–96), Whitlock's widow Elizabeth (1696–98), John Nutt (1698–1706), John Morphew (1706–20), Morphew's widow Elizabeth (1720–22) and Thomas Payne (1722–26), and that 'near the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane' which was operated successively from the time of the Glorious Revolution until the 1740s by Richard Baldwin (1688-98), his widow Abigail (1698–1713), and the Baldwins' son-in-law James Roberts (1713–1740s). The 1680s also saw the shorter-lived shops of Langley Curtis, of Walter Davis, and of Richard Janeway, while the next burst of activity in the early 18th century gave rise to those of Sarah Malthus, of Benjamin Bragg and his niece Sarah Popping, of Ferdinando Burleigh and his widow Rebecca, and of John Baker, whose business split on his death between his widow Shirley and her successors William Boreham and John Peele on the one hand, and Thomas Warner and his much better-known successors Thomas and Mary Cooper on the other.
... the presence of any one of them in an imprint in the form 'Printed for [for example] S. Popping at the Black Raven in Paternoster Row' is an almost certain guarantee that that imprint is what I have called a misleading one and that the work on which it appears was actually published (in our modern sense) by someone else—someone the identity of whom in the absence of surviving manuscript evidence, it will be extremely difficult to discover. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule for ... trade publishers did occasionally own copyrights and publish on their own account. And there are also a large number of trade publisher imprints, perhaps a quarter in all, though the proportion varies widely from one to another and over time, which are not misleading at all, being in the correct form 'Sold by [for example] Ferdinando Burleigh in Amen Corner, where the name of the actual publisher is not misrepresented, but merely omitted. This does not, however, alter the fact that, in the absence of specific evidence to the contrary, it is always safest to assume that any work bearing the imprint of a known trade publisher was published for someone else.
—Michael Treadwell, “On False and Misleading Imprints in the London Book Trade, 1660–1750,” in Fakes and Frauds: Varieties of Deception in Print and Manuscript, ed. Robin Myers and Michael Harris (Oak KnollPress, 1989, rpt. 2006), 33–34
The Life and Errors of John Dunton, by John Dunton (1705)
Mr. Nut—We went joint Partners in the Parliament Lottery, and a Prize of Ten Pounds per Annum, falling upon my TICKET, it renew'd our Friendship.
Upon a long Experience of Mr. Nut, I find him to be a just Paymaster, and a good Publisher.
Mr. Nut—was originally a Printer, and liv'd with Mr. Jones, in the Savoy for many Years, and has always had the Character of being very discreet and obliging, and now gives as great content to those that Employ him, as any PUBLISHER whatsoever.
A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, by Henry Plomer (1922)
NUTT (JOHN), printer and bookseller in London, (i) (a) near Stationers Hall, or Juxta Basilicam Stationariorum, (b) in Stationers' Court; (2) in the Savoy. 1690(?)–1710(?). The Rev. Rowland Davies, Dean of Ross, records in his Diary under date April 3rd, 1690: "Then I went to my brother and with him into the City, having at Nott's bought this book and a case for sermons for three shillings." [Camden Soc. Pub. no. 64, 1857, p. 97.] This entry may possibly refer to William Nutt, the bookseller of Pall Mall, although the latest reference to him in the Term Catalogues is 1688–9. On the other hand, if the Dean really made his purchase in the City, then the reference must be to John Nutt, who is not otherwise known to have been established there until 1698. [T.C. III. 95.] Dunton again has added to the confusion. He says of "Mr. Nutt": "He was originally a printer, and lived with Mr. Jones in the Savoy for many years ... and now gives as great content to those that employ him as any publisher whatever." This was written in 1703, but John Nutt, the printer in the Savoy, is not mentioned in the Term Catalogues as a printer until 1708. The fact seems to be that Nutt gave up bookselling about 1708 to resume his earlier trade as a printer. His last entry in the Term Catalogues is Moll's Atlas, 1709, printed by him. [T.C. III. 651.] He was apparently succeeded by Elizabeth Nutt (q.v.), probably his widow. His most famous publication was Swift's Tale of a Tub, 1704 and reprints to 1710.
Notes & Queries "London Booksellers Series" (1931–2)
Nutt, John. The publisher of Pomfret's 'Choice' (1700). He advertises as "Near Stationers' Hall" in 1701, and appears in press advertisements occasionally for the next few years. He died before 1716, though exactly when, I have not been able to ascertain. His widow, Elizabeth Nutt, was still carrying on the business in 1736. (This on the authority of Timperley).
—Frederick T. Wood, 26 September 1931