John Merrill (died 1734), of Lainston, Hampshire, was a British government official and politician who sat in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. T ...

between 1721 and 1734. Merrill was probably the clerk in the pay office who became deputy to

John Grubham Howe John Grubham Howe (1657–1722), commonly known as Jack Howe, was an English politician. Elected on numerous occasions as Member of Parliament, he made the transition from the Whig to the Tory faction. Early life He was second son of John Grob ...

, the

Paymaster-General His Majesty's Paymaster General or HM Paymaster General is a ministerial position in the Cabinet Office of the United Kingdom. The incumbent Paymaster General is Jeremy Quin MP. History The post was created in 1836 by the merger of the posit ...

, by 1710. He was chief clerk to William Pulteney when he was secretary at war from 1715 to 1717. Pulteney said of Merrill ‘He understood the ... revenues ... as well, perhaps better than any man in it … he was the truest friend’. Pulteney was probably instrumental in Merrill's unopposed return as

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...

for

Tregony Tregony ( kw, Trerigoni), sometimes in the past Tregoney, is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Tregony with Cuby, in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It lies on the River Fal. In the village there is a post office (now ...

at a by-election on 7 November 1721 in succession to Daniel Pulteney. Merrill was returned unopposed again at the 1722 general election. He was deputy to Pulteney who was

Cofferer of the Household The Cofferer of the Household was formerly an office in the English and British Royal Household. Next in rank to the Comptroller, the holder paid the wages of some of the servants above and below stairs, was a member of the Board of Green Cloth, a ...

from 1723 to 1725 and became a director of the

South Sea Company The South Sea Company (officially The Governor and Company of the merchants of Great Britain, trading to the South Seas and other parts of America, and for the encouragement of the Fishery) was a British joint-stock company founded in Ja ...

in 1724. By 1725 Pulteney had gone into opposition. Merrill was not put forward for Tregony at the 1727 general election. He did not re-enter Parliament until a by-election on 23 January 1733, when he was returned as MP for St Albans by the Duchess of Marlborough on Pulteney's recommendation. He did not stand in 1734. Merrill married Susanna Chudleigh, daughter of Hugh Chudleigh of Westminster He died of gout on 19 December 1734, leaving one son.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrill, John 1734 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734