Tillotsons was a publishing firm based in Bolton, Lancashire, founded by W.F. Tillotson. It remained in the Tillotson family until it was sold more than a century later. The company owned a number of weekly newspapers in the county, starting with the Bolton Evening News, launched in 1867. Other titles included the Bolton Weekly Journal and District News and the Stretford and Urmston Journal, published from 1961-1984. In 1873 W. F. Tillotson established Tillotson's Newspaper Fiction Bureau. This branch of the business quickly became one of the leading suppliers of fiction to magazines and local newspapers in Britain and internationally. The company included many prominent authors of the time, including Thomas Hardy. Tillotsons famously chose not to publish his novel, 'Tess of the d'Urbervilles', though they remained on good terms with Hardy and later published 'The Pursuit of the Well-Beloved.' In 1971 St Regis Paper Company of New York acquired Tillotsons Ltd.