John Courtenay (22 August 1738 – 24 March 1816)[1][2] was an Irish officer in the British Army who became a politician in England.
[3] A member both of Brooks's and Whig Club, Courtenay aligned with Charles James Fox against the First Pitt ministry.
As such, he supported reform measures, favouring the repeal of the Test Act in Scotland in 1791, abolition of the slave trade, and parliamentary reform; helped manage the impeachment of Warren Hastings; and, in A Poetical and Philosophical Essay on the French Revolution (1793), assailed Edmund Burke for his inveterate hostility to constitutional innovation and popular sovereignty.
In a House of Commons debate on the continued suspension, Coutenay read a letter from Catherine detailing the harsh conditions under which her husband was confined at in Coldbath Fields Prison.
[5] After the Acts of Union in 1800 he welcomed the new Irish MPs to the Commons, but protested the parliamentary oath of allegiance which continued to prevent members of Ireland's Roman Catholic majority from being seated in the House.