Joseph Martin (c. 1649 – 16 August 1729) was a London merchant and politician who sat in the British

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, 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 ...

in 1701 and from 1710 to 1715. Martin was born about 1649 and became a merchant trading primarily with the Baltic, although he was also a member of the

Levant Company The Levant Company was an English chartered company formed in 1592. Elizabeth I of England approved its initial charter on 11 September 1592 when the Venice Company (1583) and the Turkey Company (1581) merged, because their charters had expired, ...

and of the New East India Company. In 1701 Martin was briefly MP for

Ipswich Ipswich () is a port town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in Suffolk, England. It is the county town, and largest in Suffolk, followed by Lowestoft and Bury St Edmunds, and the third-largest population centre in East Anglia, ...

before acting as a consul in Moscow from 1702 to 1705. He was returned as MP for

Hastings Hastings ( ) is a seaside town and Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in East Sussex on the south coast of England, east of Lewes and south east of London. The town gives its name to the Battle of Hastings, which took place to th ...

in 1710 but was defeated in 1715 and did not stand for parliament again. From 1710 to 1715, he was a director 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 ...

. He was knighted on 22 July 1712 and was Commissary for commercial negotiations with France from 1713 to 1715. Martin died on 16 August 1729, aged 80. He had married and had 3 sons and 3 daughters.

References

, - 1640s births 1729 deaths 17th-century English merchants Members of the Parliament of England (pre-1707) for Ipswich English MPs 1701 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1710–1713 British MPs 1713–1715 {{18thC-England-MP-stub