Go To Section
GARTH, John (1701-64), of Brownston (or Garth) House, Devizes.
Available from Boydell and Brewer
Biography Detail
Related Resources
Constituency
Dates
Family and Education
b. 1701, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of Lt.-Col. Thomas Garth of Harrold, Beds. by Elizabeth, da. of Thomas Colleton of Barbados (yr. s. of Sir John Colleton 1st Bt., one of the original proprietors of S. Carolina). educ. Clare, Camb. 1719; L. Inn 1718; I. Temple 1727, called 1728. m. c.1730, Rebecca, da. and coh. of John Brompton of Whitton, Mdx., 3s. 3da. suc. fa. 1731.
Offices Held
Recorder, Devizes 1732-d.
Biography
John Garth came of a family settled in the 17th century at Bolam, co. Durham. His uncle, Sir Samuel Garth, was physician-general to the army and physician-in-ordinary to George I, author of The Dispensary and a prominent member of the Kit-Cat Club. He may have owed his appointment as recorder of Devizes to his cousin, John Colleton, who married an Ernle, of the prominent Wiltshire family with estates in the neighbourhood of Devizes, and had business dealings with Sir Joseph Eyles, M.P. for the borough.1 On Eyles’s death in 1740 Garth was returned on his own interest for Devizes, which he represented unopposed till his death. In 1756 he could speak of ‘constant attendance and steady concurrence in the support of the measures of Government in Parliament without any assistance or return.’2 When he died, 24 Dec. 1764, he was succeeded by his son, Charles Garth, both as recorder and as M.P. for the borough.
