John Nixon

Who is John Nixon?

John Nixon was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1646 to 1653.

Nixon was the son of William Nixon, a husbandman of Blechington and his wife Joan Silvester. He became a merchant at Oxford and acquired a considerable fortune. On 2 October 1622 he was elected on to the Common Council, and in 1623 became bailiff. He was admitted a freeman on 3 February 1625 and in 1627 was elected senior bailiff. He became mayor of Oxford in 1636. In April 1638 he was elected an Alderman. As a zealous puritan, he was a witness against Archbishop Laud at his trial. Although he was a prominent Parliamentarian, in 1642 he contributed four pounds of powder and two pieces of match to a general royalist fund. However in 1643 he fled from Oxford when the King was on his way and the then mayor on the advice of the king recommended that he and other aldermen and councillors who had left the city should be disfranchised, forfeit the freedom of the City, and be deprived of any offices they held in the City.