John Shafto (c. 1693 – 1742), of
Whitworth Hall, County Durham
Whitworth Hall which stands in Whitworth Hall Country Park, near Spennymoor, County Durham England, is a country house, formerly the home of the Shafto family and now a hotel. It is a listed building.
Descendants of the Shafto family of Shafto C ...
, was a British lawyer and Tory 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. ...
from 1730 to 1742.
![WhitworthHallDurham](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a7/WhitworthHallDurham.jpg)
Shafto was the second son of Mark Shafto of Whitworth and his wife Margaret Ingleby, daughter of Sir William Ingleby, 2nd Baronet of Ripley, Yorkshire. He matriculated at
Lincoln College, Oxford
Lincoln College (formally, The College of the Blessed Mary and All Saints, Lincoln) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford, situated on Turl Street in central Oxford. Lincoln was founded in 1427 by Richard Fleming, the ...
on 9 May 1710, aged 16.
He was admitted at Lincolns Inn on 22 December 1711
and was called to the bar in 1718. In 1719, he succeeded his brother
Robert Shafto to the family seat at Whitworth. He married Mary Jackson, daughter of Thomas Jackson of Nunnington, Yorkshire on 20 May 1731.
Shafto was returned as Tory
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 of ...
for
City of Durham in succession to his brother at a closely contested by-election on 26 January 1730. He was returned unopposed at the
1734 British general election
The 1734 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 8th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. Robert Walpole's incr ...
and again at the
1741 British general election
The 1741 British general election returned members to serve in the House of Commons of the 9th Parliament of Great Britain to be summoned, after the merger of the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland in 1707. The election saw suppo ...
. He voted against the Government in all known occasions.
[
Shafto died on 3 April 1742 leaving two sons and two daughters,][ and was buried at St Andrews Churchyard, Holborn. He was succeeded by his son Robert (]Bobby Shafto
Robert Shafto (sometimes spelt Shaftoe) (circa 1732 – 24 November 1797) was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1760 and 1790. He was the likely subject of a famous North East English folk song and nursery rhyme " B ...
).
References
External links
Rowntree Tryon Galleries - John Shafto of Bavington Hall and Whitworth Hall, Northumberland, holding a hunter, in a landscape, with a groom and stable beyond
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shafto, John
1690s births
1742 deaths
Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies
British MPs 1727–1734
British MPs 1734–1741
British MPs 1741–1747