Constituency : East Sussex 1857-74, Chester 1874-80, Scarborough 1880-4
John was the son of a barrister and Tory MP. He was educated at Eton and Oxford and became a barrister himself. He first contested East Sussex in 1852 but wasn't successful until the following election. He was a director of the Rock Life Assurance Company and Brighton Baths Company. He travelled widely in the 1840s visiting the Near and Middle East and the Crimea during the war. He was a skilled linguist and a keen mountaineer. Once in Parliament he pressed for the removal of the hop duties, Gladstone duly obliging in 1861.
John carried a bill in 1863 allowing university voters to vote by post which had the unintended consequence of causing Gladstone's defeat at Oxford in the subsequent election.
In 1865 John became Chairman of Ways And Means (aka Deputy Speaker of the Commons } and held the post to 1872. In 1873 he joined the government as Gladstone's Financial Secretary to the Treasury. In 1874 he lost his seat and had to switch to Chester. Back in Parliament he was Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee from 1874 to 1876.
When Gladstone returned to power in 1880 John was appointed President of the Local Government Board but his election was declared void on petition so he had to win a by-election at Scarborough to get back in and assume his duties. He piloted the Employer's Liability Act through the Commons but failed to impress his colleagues with his plans for local government and in 1882 was switched to Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
John was raised to the peerage on his retirement in 1884 as Baron Monk Bretton. He subsequently became a Liberal Unionist. He was the first chairman of East Sussex County Council serving from 1889 to 1892. He became concerned about the fate of the African elephant.
He died in 1897 aged 71. A E West said of him that his talents "did not appear on the surface and many people were puzzled at the success he attained".
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