Sir John Benn Walsh, 1st Baronet (10 February 1759 – 7 June 1825), was an English landowner and MP.

Life

He was born in Cumberland as John Benn, the only son of William Benn of Moor Row, Whitehaven, Cumberland, and his wife Mary, daughter of Timothy Nicholson. In 1787 he married

Margaret Margaret is a feminine given name, which means "pearl". It is of Latin origin, via Ancient Greek and ultimately from Iranian languages, Old Iranian. It has been an English language, English name since the 11th century, and remained popular thro ...

, daughter of Joseph Fowke of Kent. In 1795 his wife inherited the India-made fortune of her mother's brother Sir John Walsh on condition that they changed the family name to Walsh, which they duly did, by royal licence, and that it would go her eldest son when he came of age. The legacy included Warfield Park, Berkshire, the Radnorshire manors of Cefnllys and Coed Swydd and a number of farms in eastern Radnorshire. Benn worked for the East India Company in Benares, India, as an assistant and secretary to his brother-in-law, Francis Fowke, making a small fortune in the process, which he invested in land to enlarge the family estates, making his family seat at Warfield. He served as

High Sheriff of Radnorshire History The office of High Sheriff is over 1000 years old, with its establishment before the Norman Conquest. The Office of High Sheriff remained first in precedence in the counties until the reign of Edward VII when an Order in Council in 190 ...

in 1798, and sat as an MP for

Bletchingley Bletchingley (historically "Blechingley") is a village in Surrey, England. It is on the A25 road to the east of Redhill and to the west of Godstone, has a conservation area with medieval buildings and is mostly on a wide escarpment of the Gre ...

, Surrey, from 1802 to 1804. He was made a baronet in 1804. He died in 1825 and was succeeded by his son

John John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

, the future Lord Ormathwaite. His memorial at

Warfield Warfield is a village and civil parish in the Bracknell Forest district, in the ceremonial county of Berkshire, England. In 2021 it had a population of 11,260. History Warfield was originally an Anglo-Saxon settlement and is recorded in the Do ...

is sculpted by John Bacon.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walsh, John Benn 1759 births 1825 deaths People from Workington People from Warfield 1 High sheriffs of Radnorshire English landowners Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1802–1806