John Asgill (25 March 1659 – 10 November 1738) was an eccentric

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writer and politician.

Life

Asgill attended

Nonconformist (Protestantism) In English church history, the Nonconformists, also known as a Free Church person, are Protestant Christians who did not "conform" to the governance and usages of the established church, the Church of England (Anglican Church). Use of the ter ...

services in his youth. He studied law at 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 ...

, 1686, and was called to the

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in 1692. He founded the first land bank in 1695 with

Nicholas Barbon Nicholas Barbon ( 1640 – 1698) was an English economist, physician, and financial speculator. Historians of mercantilism consider him to be one of the first proponents of the free market. In the aftermath of the Great Fire of London, he b ...

, which, after proving to be a profitable venture, merged with the land bank of John Briscoe in 1696. However, after profits dropped, the bank closed in 1699. He was then elected that year as Member of Parliament for Bramber.. In 1700 Asgill had published ''An Argument Proving, that … Man may be Translated'', a

pamphlet A pamphlet is an unbound book (that is, without a hard cover or binding). Pamphlets may consist of a single sheet of paper that is printed on both sides and folded in half, in thirds, or in fourths, called a ''leaflet'' or it may consist of a ...

aiming to prove that

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was not obligatory upon

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, which, much to his surprise, caused a public outcry and led to his expulsion from the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fra ...

in 1703, only a short time after he had stood successfully for

Enniscorthy Enniscorthy () is the second-largest town in County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. At the 2016 census, the population of the town and environs was 11,381. The town is located on the picturesque River Slaney and in close proximity to the ...

. He had moved to Ireland where the act for returning the forfeited estates which had been given away by William was providing work for lawyers. Whilst in Ireland he had been re-elected to the

English House of Commons The House of Commons of England was the lower house of the Parliament of England (which incorporated Wales) from its development in the 14th century to the union of England and Scotland in 1707, when it was replaced by the House of Commons of ...

for Bramber in 1702 and so returned to England. On 12 June 1707 he was arrested and imprisoned at Fleet Prison for debt; he claimed

parliamentary immunity Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which politicians such as president, vice president, governor, lieutenant governor, member of parliament, member of legislative assembly, member of legislative council, s ...

as a member of a current parliament despite the confusion whether the last English parliament and the

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were the same body, and in December the House of Commons agreed. Nevertheless, two days after ordering his release from prison, he was expelled from the Commons for authoring a blasphemous book. He fell on hard times, and passed the rest of his life between the Fleet prison and the King's Bench, but his zeal as a pamphleteer continued unabated.

Notes

;Attribution

External links

*
Entry at History of Parliament Online
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asgill, John 1659 births 1738 deaths English male writers English MPs 1702–1705 English MPs 1705–1707 British MPs 1707–1708 Irish MPs 1703–1713 Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Wexford constituencies Inmates of Fleet Prison English pamphleteers 18th-century English people English lawyers 17th-century English lawyers 17th-century English male writers 17th-century English writers Members of the Middle Temple People imprisoned for debt Expelled members of the Parliament of Great Britain People from Worcestershire (before 1974)