Burlington House originally began as a private residence on Picadilly Street, London, in 1664. In 1704, it became the home of Richard Boyle, Third Earl of Burlington, who became a famous architect in the Palladian style. Burlington died in 1753 and passed his home on to his son, Lord George Cavendish. Either he or the Third Duke of Portland occupied the home when John Almon worked across the street.

This is the facade of Burlington House as it still stands today. The courtyard is open to the public, and many of the wings contain exhibition galleries from the Royal Academy.

The General Advertiser was an eighteenth-century newspaper. It was originally known as the London Daily Post and General Advertiser, and then became the General Advertiser. Printer Henry Woodfall took over the paper in 1713, renaming it the Public Advertiser. He operated it until his nineteen-year-old son, Henry Sampson Woodfall, took over the paper in 1769. relaunched as the Public Advertiser with much more news content. In 1758, the printer's nineteen-year-old son, Henry Sampson Woodfall took it over. During this time, The anonymous polemicist Junius sent his letters to the Public Advertiser. Henry Sampson Woodfall sold his interest in the Public Advertiser in November 1793. N. Byrne took it over and printed it as the Political and Literary Diary, but it went out of business by 1795.

John Wilkes became a Member of Parliament in 1757, where he advocated for the right of voters, rather than the House of Commons, in choosing their representatives, and began pushing for parliamentary reform in 1776. In 1771, Wilkes, in support of Almon, convinced the government to allow printers the right to publish verbatim accounts of parliamentary debates. He further supported the Patriot cause during the American Revolutionary War, making him more popular among Whigs.

William de Grey served as Attorney General under William Pitt the Elder from 1766-1771. In 1770, he took part in the trial of Henry Sampson Woodfall for printing and publishing the Letters of Junius, which he claimed contained seditious libel. Woodfall went free on the declaration of a mistrial. John Miller, printer of the London Evening Post was declared not guilty. Only bookseller John Almon was declared guilty, though he appears not to have been punished.