Jonathan Elliot (publisher)

Jonathan Elliot (1784 – March 12, 1846) was an English-American printer, newspaper editor, and publisher of a series of historical document compilations. Immigrating to New York City as an adolescent, he served as a foreign volunteer during the Colombian War of Independence, before returning to the United States for a brief stint of service in the War of 1812. He moved to Washington, D.C., in 1813, where he began work as a newspaper publisher. He began the daily newspaper Washington City Gazette (disrupted by the British sack of Washington) and strongly supported the unsuccessful 1816 presidential candidacy of William H. Crawford, for which he was rewarded with a series of printing contracts.

Following another unsuccessful Crawford run in the 1824 election and business conflicts with President John Quincy Adams, Elliot sold the paper to John Silva Meehan and largely exited the news industry. Later in his career, he published a series of history books and compilations of documents. Little is known about Elliot's personal life, beyond that he married twice and had four children. He died in Washington D.C., in March 1846, a year after publishing his final work.