John Darby the Elder (d. 1704; fl. 1662–1704)
John Darby the Elder, printer in Bartholomew Close, 1662–1704.
A Dictionary of the Booksellers and Printers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1641 to 1667, by Henry Plomer (1907)
DARBY (JOHN), printer in London; Bartholomew Close, 1662–67. A printer in a small way of business whom Sir R. L. Estrange threatened to prosecute for having set up contrary to the Act of 1662. John Darby was constantly in trouble with the authorities for printing satires, lampoons, and other unauthorised literature, of which it is enough to mention Andrew Marvell's Rehearsal Transposed. [Calendars of Domestic State Papers, 1663–67.]
A Dictionary of the Printers and Booksellers who were at Work in England, Scotland and Ireland from 1668 to 1725, by Henry Plomer (1922)
DARBY (JOHN), sen., printer in London, Bartholomew Close, 1662–1704. See Dictionary, 1641–67. In February 1684 he was convicted of printing a libel called Lord Russell's Speech; but escaped with a fine of twenty marks. [Nichols, Lit. Anecd., VIII. 367.] Dunton [p. 247] has this notice of him: "I might call him the religious printer. He goes to Heaven with the Anabaptists but is a man of general charity. He printed that excellent speech of my Lord Russell and several pieces of Colonel Sydney, and is a true assertor of English liberties." Timperley [pp. 589–90] says that he died December 11th, 1704, in his 80th year. He was succeeded by his son John. Among his apprentices was Henry Woodfall.