John Sargent (1749–1831)

John Sargent (1749 – 9 September 1831) was a British Member of Parliament and administrator.

He was born a younger son of John Sargent, MP of Halstead Place, Kent and educated at Eton College (1760–67) and St. John’s College, Cambridge (1767) before studying law at Lincoln's Inn from 1770.

He held a wide variety of offices: Director of the Bank of England (1778–79), Gentleman of the Privy Chamber (1784), member of the Board of Agriculture (1803), Clerk of the Ordnance (1793–1802), joint Secretary to the Treasury (1802–1804) and a Commissioner of Audit (1806–21).

He also served as Member of Parliament for Seaford from 1790 to 1793, for Queenborough from 1794 to 1802 and for Bodmin from 1802 to 1806.

On 21 December 1778, at Woolavington, Sussex, he married Charlotte, the daughter and heiress of Richard Bettesworth of Petworth, Sussex, with whom he had six sons and four daughters, including John Sargent, the clergyman and biographer. His second son, George Hanway Sargent was shot and killed in November 1807, aged 25, in the pursuit of the highwayman, Jim Allen.