Sir John Germain, 1st Baronet

Sir John Germain, 1st Baronet (c. May 1650 – 11 December 1718) was a British soldier of Dutch origin and politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1713 and 1718.

He resumed his affair with the Duchess of Norfolk, and in 1692 the Duke tried to divorce her by Act of Parliament but she opposed him in order to defend her inheritance, with the assistance of her father Henry Mordaunt, 2nd Earl of Peterborough.

The bill was thrown out by the House of Lords insisting that the accusations be first proved in a lower court and so the Duke brought a much-publicised action for criminal conversation against Germain in King’s bench for £100,000.

The Duchess, who succeeded to the estate of Drayton, Northamptonshire and as Baroness Mordaunt on her father's death, married Germain by licence dated 15 September 1701.

The 3rd Earl of Peterborough had a claim to Drayton, but in November 1707 a case in the Queen’s bench was decided in favour of Germain.

[3] There are memorials to Sir John Germain, his two wives and his three children (who died young) in St Peter's Church, Lowick, Northamptonshire.