The newspaper started life on 10 February 1844, priced 4½d, as the
Preston Guardian, and was founded by
Joseph Livesey, the "father" of the
total abstinence movement in Britain to support the campaign for the
repeal of the
Corn Laws. He was assisted by his sons: William, as sub-editor and manager of the business department (until forced to retire by ill health); John, who came in as editor at the age of 21; and younger sons Franklin and Howard. Livesey Snr was, however, the overall superintendent and wrote the leaders for local news items. His son James did not participate in that familial enterprise; instead he turned his hand to building railways and later made a name for himself with the construction of the Transandean Railway (1887 to 1910), "one of the greatest engineering feats in South America" topped by a 1-mile-long tunnel at a 10,466 ft altitude; in 1890 he also designed the first
cantilever bridge built in Spain, although the company he worked for floundered and the designing engineer of the company that took over the work only retained the cantilever principle of his project. The success of the newspaper can be attested by a remark of
Richard Cobden: The paper lasted for 15 years under the Livesey's management, until 1859. By then it had become a valuable commodity and was sold to local businessman and fellow teetotaller, Councillor George Toulmin
JP (father of the
journalist,
newspaper proprietor and
Liberal Party politician
George Toulmin (1857–1923)), who owned the paper until 1883.
Thomas Wemyss Reid was an editor from 1864 to 1866. In 1872, a new office building was completed in Fishergate, Preston, and the paper moved into the ground floor. The building was later shared with the
Lancashire Evening Post and was demolished in 1989. The paper lasted under its original name until May 1958 and then continued to the present day as the
Farmers Guardian.
John Boyle O'Reilly, a future Irish poet, journalist and activist in the United States, worked as an apprentice at the
Preston Guardian in the early 1860s. ==References==