Sir John Eyles, 2nd Baronet (1683 – 11 March 1745) of

Gidea Hall Gidea Hall was a manor house in Gidea Park, the historic parish and Royal liberty of Havering-atte-Bower, whose former area today is part of the north-eastern extremity of Greater London. The first record of Gidea Hall is in 1250, and by 1410 ...

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 Grea ...

, was a British financier 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 ...

from 1713 to 1734. He was

Lord Mayor of London The Lord Mayor of London is the mayor of the City of London and the leader of the City of London Corporation. Within the City, the Lord Mayor is accorded precedence over all individuals except the sovereign and retains various traditional pow ...

in 1726. He served as a Director of the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

1710-14 and again 1717-21 and was appointed a sub-governor 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 1721.

Origins

Eyles was the second but eldest surviving son of Sir Francis Eyles, 1st Baronet by his wife Elizabeth Ayley, a daughter Richard Ayley, a merchant in the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. His younger brother was Joseph Eyles, MP.

Career

Eyles was a Director of the

from 1710 to 1714. He was elected as Whig

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 Chippenham at the 1713 general election. From 1715 to 1717 he was a director of the Bank of England. He was elected MP for Chippenham again at the 1715 general election and voted consistently with the government. He succeeded to his father's

baronetcy A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

on 24 May 1716 and became Master of the Haberdashers Company and

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

of Vintry on 19 June 1716. Also in 1716, he was appointed one of the commissioners to oversee estates forfeited to the Crown during the unsuccessful

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire ...

, a post he held until 1725. From 1717 to 1721 Eyles served another term as Director of the East India Company. He was appointed

Sheriff of London Two sheriffs are elected annually for the City of London by the Liverymen of the City livery companies. Today's sheriffs have only nominal duties, but the historical officeholders had important judicial responsibilities. They have attended the ju ...

for 1720. He was also appointed a sub-governor of the

in February 1721 in the aftermath of the South Sea Bubble. At the 1722 general election he was returned unopposed at Chippenham. He was knighted in December 1724 and served as

for the year 1726 to 1727. At the 1727 general election he was elected MP for the

. At the 1734 general election Eyles did not stand for the City of London and was defeated at Chippenham. He became alderman for

Bridge Without Bridge Without was a historical ward of the City of London situated to the south of the River Thames, which existed between 1550 and 1899. The area of the Bridge Without ward today forms part of the London Borough of Southwark. It was so-called to ...

(a ward previously represented by his father) from 22 July 1737. He was also appointed president of St. Thomas's Hospital in 1737, and Joint

Postmaster-General A Postmaster General, in Anglosphere countries, is the chief executive officer of the postal service of that country, a ministerial office responsible for overseeing all other postmasters. The practice of having a government official responsible ...

in 1739, holding both posts for the rest of his life.

Gidea Hall

Eyles purchased the estate of

, in

Havering The London Borough of Havering () in East London, England, forms part of Outer London. It has a population of 259,552 inhabitants; the principal town is Romford, while other communities are Hornchurch, Upminster, Collier Row and Rainham. The ...

, demolished the old mansion there in 1720, and built a new "elegant" house.Waylen, James; Goddard, E. H
''A History, Military and Municipal of the Ancient Borough of the Devizes''
London: Longman, Brown & co., 1859, p. 372. In 1731, Eyles was the dedicatee of

George Lillo George Lillo (3 February 1691 – 4 September 1739) was an English playwright and tragedian. He was also a jeweller in London. He produced his first stage work, ''Silvia, or The Country Burial'', in 1730, and a year later his most famous play, ...

's tragedy The London Merchant, a play later excerpted in French by Abbé Prévost who had served as Sir John's secretary and tutor to his son Francis.

Marriage and issue

He married Mary Haskin Styles (d.1735), the daughter of his first cousin Sarah Eyles (daughter of Sir John Eyles, elder brother of the first baronet.

Cokayne, George Edward George Edward Cokayne, (29 April 1825 – 6 August 1911), was an English genealogist and long-serving herald at the College of Arms in London, who eventually rose to the rank of Clarenceux King of Arms. He wrote such authoritative and standar ...

(1906)
Complete Baronetage
'. Volume V. Exeter: W. Pollard & Co. . p. 22) by her husband Joseph Haskin Styles. Mary died on 14 November 1735, and was buried at

St Helen's Bishopsgate St Helen's Bishopsgate is an Anglican church in London. It is located in Great St Helen's, off Bishopsgate. It is the largest surviving parish church in the City of London. Several notable figures are buried there, and it contains more monumen ...

9 days later. By his wife he had issue one son and one daughter, including: * Sir Francis Haskins Eyles-Stiles, 3rd Baronet (d.1762), eldest son and heir.

Death

He died on 11 March 1745.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Eyles, Sir John, 2nd Baronet 1683 births 1745 deaths Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Sheriffs of the City of London 18th-century lord mayors of London Knights Bachelor Baronets in the Baronetage of Great Britain British MPs 1713–1715 British MPs 1715–1722 British MPs 1722–1727 British MPs 1727–1734 United Kingdom Postmasters General