The Banbury Guardian was owned and edited by three generations of the same family for its first 109 years of publication.In 1822 William Potts moved from Daventry to Banbury where he traded as a printer and bookseller. Potts supported the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, and on 5 April 1838 he launched The Guardian, disabuse the public mind when unfounded reports, likely to create alarm, and excite suspicion are circulated by those who, from the situations they occupy, may be supposed to possess better information than do the public generally.