John Bristow (25 April 1701 – 14 November 1768), of Mark Lane, London, and Quidenham, Norfolk, was an English merchant, financier and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1734 to 1768.

He became a leading merchant in trade with Portugal, and a prominent figure in the South Sea Company, of which he was a director from 1730 and then deputy governor from 1733.

[1] Bristow was returned by his brother-in-law, John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire, as Member of Parliament (MP) for Bere Alston at the 1734 British general election.

In 1739, on the outbreak of war with Spain, he and his partner Peter Burrell, were granted contracts for remitting money for the forces in Gibraltar, Minorca and Jamaica.

Another daughter, Harriot Elizabeth Slessor, who married an army officer stationed in Portugal, is an ancestor of actress Olivia Colman.

[2][4] Bristow had acquired Quidenham Hall after 1740 and added an East Wing in Palladian style and a West portico supported by large Doric columns.