John Calcraft

John Calcraft the Elder (1726 – 23 August 1772), of Rempstone in Dorset and Ingress in Kent, was an English army agent and politician.

In 1757 Calcraft purchased an estate at Rempstone on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, which gave him an interest in three nearby parliamentary boroughs, Corfe Castle, Poole and Wareham.

He quickly set out to buy further property which would increase his influence in each borough: he was unsuccessful at Corfe Castle, but acquired sufficient sway at Poole to secure the election of his brother, Thomas Calcraft, in 1761 and 1768, and became landlord to enough of the voters to gain complete control of Wareham,[3] which remained a Calcraft pocket borough until the Reform Act.

Calcraft was by now one of the most influential behind-the-scenes figures in British politics, working hand-in-glove with Fox, and was particularly deeply involved in the discussions to construct a government following the fall of Bute in 1763.

But at this point he fell out with Fox, who he believed should give up the Pay Office, and became more closely associated with Shelburne and Pitt, and there was talk that he would be offered an Irish peerage.