John William Parker served a printing apprenticeship in London with William Clowes. He is credited with modernising the Cambridge University Press, where Clowes was superintendent, and from 1836 to 1854 was official printer for that press.
Parker began his own business in 1832, and began publishing 'improving' material for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; the firm later published serious theological, historical and political writing. Its output after 1843, when Parker was joined in the business by his son, John William Parker Jnr, reflects his son's support for liberal Christianity and Christian socialism. In 1860 the firm became embroiled in controversy following its publication of Essays and Reviews which was critical of traditional Christianity, and was condemned by a petition signed by every Anglican bishop in Great Britain.
The business was called Parker, Son, and Bourn from 1860 to 1863, when it was sold to Longmans.
