Constituency : Eifion 1885-1906
John took the new seat of Eifion ( South Carenarvonshire ).
John was the son of a wealthy local tenant farmer. He was a Calvinistic Methodist. John was educated at home and Cheltenham Grammar School. John started out farming his father's estates but in 1863 swapped jobs with his brother Hugh who worked for a solicitor. He eventually became a barrister. He was adopted as a candidate for Eifion due to a Methodist caucus in the local Liberal association or so alleged his Congregationalist rival R Pughe Jones.
John supported Welsh disestablishment, Free Trade, pacifism and parliamentary reform to restrain obstructionism.
John had a speech impediment which restricted his oratorical abilities. He was a firm Gladstonian opposed to socialism and hostile to the Welsh radicals and particularly their leader Lloyd George whom he described as the "Welsh Parnell" . He refused to campaign for him. He accused Lloyd George of conspiring with the Tories and Parnell in the disestablishment rebellion of 1895 which helped bring down the Rosebery government. He was unopposed in 1895.
John did however oppose the Boer War like his rival and opposed the Liberal Imperialism of Asquith and Grey.
John resigned his seat shortly after re-election in order to become a county court judge. He built up a reputation as being anti-union and reluctant to apply the new laws on workmen's compensation.
John retired in 1921 and died ten years later aged 88.
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