John Barnard

Who was John Barnard?

Sir John Barnard was a British Whig politician and Lord Mayor of London.

He was a son of John Barnard of London, a Quaker merchant, and his wife Sarah, daughter of Robert Payne of Play Hatch in Sonning on the border of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.

He was a Sheriff of London in 1736 and elected Lord Mayor of London for 1737.

He was elected at the 1722 general election as one of the four Members of Parliament for the City of London. He held the seat for nearly 40 years, until the 1761 general election.

Barnard was an opposition Whig, opposed to the administration of Sir Robert Walpole. In a speech in March 1738 Barnard said:

A dishonourable peace is worse than a destructive war...All nations are apt to play the bully with respect to one another; and if the government or administration of a nation has taken but one insult tamely, their neighbours will from thence judge of the character of that nation...and will accordingly treat them as bullies do noted poltroons; they will kick and cuff them upon every occasion.