John Beecroft (1790 – 10 June 1854) was an explorer, governor of Fernando Po and British Consul of the Bight of Benin and Biafra.
[1] His early life is obscure but while serving on a coasting vessel he is known to have been captured by a French privateer during the Napoleonic Wars in 1805, and held prisoner until 1814.
In 1829 he was appointed master of works in Fernando Po, an island in the Gulf of Guinea nominally belonging to Spain but which the British were using to establish a base against the slave trade.
Realising Spain was not willing to cede control of the island the British left in 1833 but Beecroft effectively continued in the role of acting governor, even holding a court of justice, although at this point he was also agent of a trading company.
His widow, Mrs. Ellen Beecroft, later received a pension in the Civil List in recognition of her husband's contribution to the suppression of the slave trade and advancement of British interests on the coast of Africa.