WALTER, JOHN (1738/9-1812), founder of The Times newspaper, London, was born in 1738/9, probably in London, and from the death of his father, Richard Walter (about 1755/6), until 1781 was engaged in a prosperous business as a coal mer chant. He played a leading part in establishing a Coal Exchange in London; but shortly after 1781, when he began to occupy him self solely as an underwriter and became a member of Lloyd's, he over-speculated and failed. In 1782 he bought from one Henry Johnson a patent for a new method of printing from "logotypes" (i.e., founts of words or portions of words, instead of letters), and made some improvements in it. In 1784 he acquired an old print ing office in Blackfriars, which formed the nucleus of the Printing house Square of a later date, and established there his "Logo graphic Office." At first he only undertook the printing of books, but on Jan. I, 1785 he started a small newspaper called The Daily Universal Register, which on reaching its 940th number on Jan. 1,
1788 was renamed The Times.
The printing business developed and prospered, but the news paper at first had a somewhat chequered career. In 1789 Walter was tried for a libel in it on the duke of York, and was sentenced to a fine of £50, a year's imprisonment in Newgate, to stand in the pillory for an hour and to give surety for good behaviour for seven years; and for further libels the fine was increased by oo, and the imprisonment by a second year. On March 9, 1791, how ever, he was liberated and pardoned. In 1799 he was again con victed for a technical libel, this time on Lord Cowper. He had then given up the management of the business to his eldest son, William, and had (1795) retired to Teddington, where he died on Nov. 16, 1812. In 1759 he had married Frances Landen (died 5798), by whom he had six children. In 1803 William Walter transferred the sole management to his younger brother, John.