John Eliot (18 October 1612 – March 1685) of

Port Eliot Port Eliot in the parish of St Germans, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom, is the ancestral seat of the Eliot family, whose present head is Albert Eliot, 11th Earl of St Germans. Port Eliot comprises a stately home with its own church, which ...

, St Germans, Cornwall was an English 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. ...

in 1640 and from 1660 to 1685. Eliot was the son of Sir John Eliot of Port Eliot. He was educated at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is a co-educational day and boarding independent school in the English public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon. It was founded in 1604 under the will of Peter Blundell, one of the richest men in England at the tim ...

in Tiverton and 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 ...

. He travelled in France in 1631 and 1632 and succeeded to an estate of £1,500 per annum on the death of his father in 1632.Basil Duke Henning ''The House of Commons, 1660-1690''
/ref> In April 1640, Eliot was elected

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 St Germans in the

Short Parliament The Short Parliament was a Parliament of England that was summoned by King Charles I of England on the 20th of February 1640 and sat from 13th of April to the 5th of May 1640. It was so called because of its short life of only three weeks. Aft ...

. He played little part in the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

but was on the County Committee in 1644. He was voted £7,000 compensation by the

Long Parliament The Long Parliament was an English Parliament which lasted from 1640 until 1660. It followed the fiasco of the Short Parliament, which had convened for only three weeks during the spring of 1640 after an 11-year parliamentary absence. In Septem ...

in 1647 for damage to his estates caused by the

Royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

. In 1660, Eliot was elected MP for St Germans in the Convention Parliament and was re-elected to the

Cavalier Parliament The Cavalier Parliament of England lasted from 8 May 1661 until 24 January 1679. It was the longest English Parliament, and longer than any Great British or UK Parliament to date, enduring for nearly 18 years of the quarter-century reign of C ...

in 1661. He sat until 1679. Eliot died at the age of 72 and was buried at St Germans on 25 March 1685. Eliot married Honora Norton, daughter of Sir Daniel Norton of Southwick Hampshire. Their sons Daniel Eliot (1646-1702) and Richard Eliot (1652-1685) also served as Member of Parliament for St Germans.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eliot, John 1612 births 1685 deaths People from St Germans, Cornwall People educated at Blundell's School Alumni of Lincoln College, Oxford Members of the pre-1707 English Parliament for constituencies in Cornwall English MPs 1640 (April) English MPs 1660 English MPs 1661–1679