John Conduitt

John Conduitt (* 1688 in London ; † 23 May 1737 ) was an English Member of Parliament ( House of Commons , 1721 to 1737) of the Whig Party. He was a confidante of Isaac Newton , whose successor he became as director of the mint. He was married to Isaac Newton's niece, who ran his household.

Conduitt attended Westminster School as King's Scholar and from 1705 studied at Trinity College of Cambridge University as Queen's Scholar. He left the university two years later without a degree and from 1707 was on a gentleman's journey to the Netherlands and Germany. In 1710 he was a lawyer (judge advocat) in the British armed forces in Portugal, where he became secretary to the Earl of Portmore. With this he returned to England in 1711. In 1712 he became a captain in a dragoon regiment in Portugal and in 1713 became deputy paymaster of the British troops in Gibraltar, which made him wealthy. In 1717 he was back in England and in 1720 bought an estate in Cranbury Park near Winchester . From 1721 he was a Member of Parliament for Whitchurch in Hampshire with the support of his friend John Wallop (Lord Lymington), with the promise to vacate the seat of his son when he came of age. As a Whig, he supported Prime Minister Robert Walpole . In 1734 he was re-elected, but preferred to sit in Parliament for Southampton from 1735 to 1737 (where he also owned estates). In 1727 he became Master of the Mint as the successor to Isaac Newton. But he had already taken over its duties from 1722.

He was married to Isaac Newton's niece Catherine Barton since 1717 . It was a love marriage, his wife was eight years older than him and well-to-do. Before that, she may have been the mistress of Newton's patron Charles Montagu, Earl of Halifax , who bequeathed her a fortune when he died in 1715, and she had been in London since about 1696 looking after Newton's household. After Newton's death in 1727, Conduitt administered his estate. They had a daughter, Catherine, who was born in 1721. She inherited a fortune of £ 60,000 and married the son and heir of Lord Lymington in 1740 and became Viscountess Lymington. Lymington was also the first Earl of Portsmouth. There is a picture of her by William Hogarth as part of a children's performance of the Conquest of Mexico by John Dryden in her father's house in 1732. She was buried in her parents' grave in Westminster Abbey on her death in 1750.

In 1736 he introduced a law that repealed a law of James I against witchcraft.

He had historical interests and in 1718 became a Fellow of the Royal Society at Newton's suggestion. Conduitt wrote a treatise on gold and silver coins in 1730, which was published posthumously. He also wrote a biographical sketch for Newton and collected material for his biography.

He is buried with his wife, who died two years after him, in Westminster Abbey near Newton.

Web links

• Biography at History of Parliament
• Grave in Westminster Abbey with inscription

References and comments

1. ↑ He was baptized on March 8th in St. Paul's Cathedral