Sir John Meres FRS (c.1660 – 15 February 1736) of

Kirby Bellars Kirby Bellars is a village and civil parish near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 369. History The village is recorded in the Domesday Book under the name of Chirchebi. The name ...

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands of England. It is bordered by Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire to the north, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire to the south-east, Warw ...

was an English knight and the director of a number of companies in the early 18th century, including the Charitable Corporation, the

York Buildings Company The York Buildings Company was an English company in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Waterworks The full name of the company was The Governor and Company for Raising the Thames Water at York Buildings. The undertaking was established in ...

, and

Company of Mineral and Battery Works The Company of Mineral and Battery Works was, with the Society of Mines Royal, Society of the Mines Royal, one of two mining monopolies created by Elizabeth I of England, Elizabeth I. The company's rights were based on a patent granted to William ...

. He was also one of the

Six Clerks The Six Clerks' Office was a public legal office that served the equitable jurisdiction of the English Court of Chancery in London, England, until the mid-19th century. The Office The Office was in Chancery Lane, near the Holborn end. The busine ...

in Chancery (a sinecure).

Background

John Meres was the second son (but main devisee – his elder brother Thomas was disinherited) of Sir

Thomas Meres Sir Thomas Meres (1634 – 9 July 1715), of Lincoln and Bloomsbury, Middlesex, was an English lawyer and Tory politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1659 and 1710. He showed a remarkable level of activity both wit ...

, a Lincolnshire gentleman who for many years was Member of Parliament for

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and Anne de la Fontaine, daughter and heiress of Erasmus de la Fontaine of

. He was educated at

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

, studied law at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional association for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practice as a barrister in England and Wa ...

and was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

in 1700.

Career

He was knighted by

William III William III or William the Third may refer to: Kings * William III of Sicily () * William III of England and Ireland or William III of Orange or William II of Scotland (1650–1702) * William III of the Netherlands and Luxembourg (1817–1890) N ...

on 26 December 1700. In 1704, he was party to a deed with the

Hollow Sword Blade Company The Hollow Sword Blades Company was a British joint-stock company founded in 1691 by a goldsmith, Sir Stephen Evance, for the manufacture of hollow-ground rapiers. In 1700 the company was purchased by a syndicate of businessmen who used the corpo ...

. In 1721 and 1722 in the wake of the

South Sea Bubble South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both west and east. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþa ...

, he was in dispute with the Duke of Portland over the sale of £20,000 worth of

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 ...

stock. He was appointed

High Sheriff of Leicestershire This is a list of Sheriffs and High Sheriffs of Leicestershire, United Kingdom. The Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most ...

for 1715 and elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the Fellows of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural science, natural knowledge, incl ...

in 1719. He was author in 1720 of ''The Equity of Parliaments and Publick Faith vindicated, in answer to ir Richard Steele'sCrisis of Property, and addressed to the Annuitants'' . He was unanimously elected Governor of the

on 17 September 1723. That company was originally concerned in water supply, but had in 1719 and 1720 bought various estates (mainly in Scotland), forfeited due to the

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart, James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland ...

for over £308,000. However, following the bursting the

, they had difficulty in raising the purchase money. In summer 1723, stock of the company, previously cancelled, was reissued, but this depressed the share price further. Following his election, Meres proposed that the company should borrow money from the Charitable Corporation, issuing bonds to it, but this fell through. Meres then proposed that each member would surrender half his stock, and added a paragraph to the minutes of the York Buildings Company meeting of 21 September 1724 as if this had been agreed, but this was (according to his opponents) objected to when the minutes were read at the next meeting. At the time, he held ten percent of the company's stock. Nevertheless, the minutes of that meeting were written up as if it had been agreed. The issue of these bonds apparently did not go ahead, but was being questioned in the Scottish courts in 1729. Meres was a member of the new Committee of the Charitable Corporation, elected on 25 October 1725, but left it in December 1729. His position with these two companies no doubt enabled him to organise a financial transaction between them. He was also Subgovernor of the

Royal Africa Company The Royal African Company (RAC) was an English trading company established in 1660 by the House of Stuart and City of London merchants to trade along the West African coast. It was overseen by the Duke of York, the brother of Charles II of Engl ...

Posterity

Meres died unmarried on 19 February 1735 and was buried at Kirby Bellars. His effects in London were sold by auction in May 1736, including jewels, plate, five pictures and mathematical instruments. The bulk of his estate passed to Thomas Whichcot, son of George Whichcot (MP for Lincolnshire) and his sister Francis Katherine Meres. Part of his estates was sold under the authority of a private act of Parliament, ( 13 Geo. 3. c. ''31'' ).Deacon, 303.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meres, Sir John 1736 deaths People from the Borough of Melton Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge Members of the Inner Temple Fellows of the Royal Society English businesspeople Year of birth uncertain High sheriffs of Leicestershire