John Maxwell (1824–1895) was an Irish businessman, publisher and property developer in London. He is known for his weekly magazines containing fiction and gossip aimed at a

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

audience, which he ran while also cultivating upmarket readers with monthly publications.

Life

Maxwell was from

Ulster Ulster (; or ; or ''Ulster'') is one of the four traditional or historic provinces of Ireland, Irish provinces. It is made up of nine Counties of Ireland, counties: six of these constitute Northern Ireland (a part of the United Kingdom); t ...

, an orphan from a

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

family, and came to London around 1842, attempting to have

Gerald Griffin Gerald Griffin (; 12 December 1803 – 12 June 1840) was an Irish-born novelist, poet and playwright. His novel ''The Collegians'' was the basis of Dion Boucicault's play '' The Colleen Bawn''. Feeling he was "wasting his time" writing fiction ...

's poetry published. In the 1850s he was in business in London, selling newspapers and advertising space in them. From 1858 Maxwell founded a series of newspapers, beginning that year with ''Town Talk'' which lasted for 18 months, followed by ''The Welcome Guest'' from 1859, bought from

Henry Vizetelly Henry Richard Vizetelly (30 July 18201 January 1894) was a British publisher and writer. He started the publications ''Pictorial Times'' and ''Illustrated Times'', wrote several books while working in Paris and Berlin as correspondent for the '' ...

and loss-making as a 1d. weekly but relaunched as ''Robin Goodfellow'' at 2d. ''Temple Bar'' from the end of 1860 was a successful monthly but Maxwell, in partnership by then with Robert Maxwell, lost control of it. He survived a financial crisis in 1862, supported by the earnings of the author

Mary Elizabeth Braddon Mary Elizabeth Braddon (4 October 1835 – 4 February 1915) was an English popular Novelists, novelist of the Victorian era. She is best known for her 1862 sensation novel ''Lady Audley's Secret'', which has also been dramatised and filmed seve ...

, with whom he was living. Maxwell continued as a publisher, in particular of reprint fiction. Maxwell also developed property in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

, where he and Braddon lived at Lichfield House. Two nearby streets that he developed are named after characters in Braddon's novels.Audley Road, which Maxwell developed in the 1880s, was named after Braddon's novel ''

Lady Audley's Secret ''Lady Audley's Secret'' is a sensation novel by Mary Elizabeth Braddon published on 1 October 1862. It was Braddon's most successful and well-known novel. Critic John Sutherland (author), John Sutherland (1989) described the work as "the most ...

''. Marchmont Road is named after her novel ''John Marchmont's Legacy''. ''The Streets of Richmond and Kew'' (Third edition, 2019), pp. 17 and 77.

Richmond Local History Society Richmond is a town in south-west London,The London Government Act 1963 (c.33) (as amended) categorises the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames as an Outer London borough. Although it is on both sides of the River Thames, the Boundary Commis ...

. .

Family

Maxwell married twice. With his first wife, Mary Anne Crowley, whom he married in 1848, he had at least five surviving children. She was later confined to a

lunatic asylum The lunatic asylum, insane asylum or mental asylum was an institution where people with mental illness were confined. It was an early precursor of the modern psychiatric hospital. Modern psychiatric hospitals evolved from and eventually replace ...

, after the birth of their seventh child, dying in 1874. He then married Mary Elizabeth Braddon. The actor Gerald Melbourne Maxwell, author W. B. Maxwell and barrister Edward Henry Harrington Maxwell were her sons.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, John 1824 births 1895 deaths 19th-century Irish publishers (people) Irish newspaper publishers (people) Real estate and property developers Richmond, London