John Hodson Kearsley (28 February 1785 - 2 October 1842) was a British politician, who served as the Member of Parliament for Wigan from 1831 to 1832, and from 1835 to 1837.
Kearsley was the third son of Edward Kearsley and his wife Ann (née Hodson); his father was a partner in a Wigan cotton mill along with his mother's brother John Hodson.
Kearsley became a brewer rather than enter the cotton business, and became wealthy after receiving large inheritances following the death of both his father and father-in-law.
While he received a majority of votes, only around a hundred freemen were actually voters, and he was strongly opposed among the general population; he was attacked during the by-election, and during the subsequent 1831 general election his windows were smashed and he "did not dare appear".
[1] He was a conservative, voting against the three Reform Bills, and was overwhelmingly defeated at the post-Reform 1832 general election.