John Luther (c. 1739–1786) was an English politician.

Life

The son of Richard Luther of

Ongar, Essex Ongar is a civil parish in the Epping Forest District in Essex, England. Other than the town of Chipping Ongar it also includes Greensted, Greensted Green, Marden Ash and Shelley. The local council of the parish is Ongar Town Council. Located a ...

, he was educated at

Newcome's School Newcome's School was a fashionable boys' school in Hackney, then to the east of London, founded in the early 18th century. A number of prominent Whig families sent their sons there. The school closed in 1815, and the buildings were gutted in 182 ...

in Hackney, and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he matriculated in 1756, graduating B.A. and M.A. in 1761. He had entered the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

to study law in 1755. He was elected a member of the

Parliament of Great Britain The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in May 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. The Acts ratified the treaty of Union which created a new unified Kingdo ...

for

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

from 13 December 1763 to 1784. A Whig, he left his wife in 1764 and went to Paris at the time when the government was pursuing

John Wilkes John Wilkes (17 October 1725 – 26 December 1797) was an English radical journalist and politician, as well as a magistrate, essayist and soldier. He was first elected a Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fo ...

. Richard Watson persuaded him to return and be reconciled with his wife and family. The family lived at Great Myles house in Kelvedon Hatch, near Ongar, Essex.

Family

On 20 January 1762 Luther had obtained a licence to marry Levina Alexander Bennet,Ancestry.com. London and Surrey, England, Marriage Bonds and Allegations, 1597-1921, database on-line, Provo, UT, USA. (subscription required) Accessed 15 December 2015 daughter of Bennet Alexander Bennet (1702–1745) and his wife Mary Ash (born 1719), who married again in 1747 to Richard Bull. Levina's brother was Richard Henry Alexander Bennet. His nephew

Francis Fane of Spettisbury Francis Fane (5 December 1752 – 10 November 1813) of Spettisbury, near Blandford, Dorset, was a British Member of Parliament. Life Francis Fane was born on 5 December 1752, the third son of Henry Fane of Wormsley and his third wife Charl ...

(1752–1813), was MP for

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...

and

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

and inherited Luther's Ongar estate. Luther left an estate at Petworth, Sussex to Bishop Watson.

References

1786 deaths People educated at Newcome's School Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Members of the Middle Temple Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1761–1768 British MPs 1768–1774 British MPs 1774–1780 British MPs 1780–1784 Year of birth uncertain {{England-GreatBritain-MP-stub