John Marshall (27 July 1765 – 6 June 1845) was a British businessman and politician from Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.

Marshall was born at 1, Briggate, Leeds, the son of Jeremiah (1731–1787), a linen draper, and his wife Mary (1728–1799), whose father was John Cowper of Yeadon.

Shortly before his father's death, Marshall heard that two men from Darlington, John Kendrew, a glass-grinder, and Thomas Porthouse, a watchmaker, had registered a patent for a new flax spinning machine.

He spent much of the next decade trying to improve the performance of the machines but found little success until he recruited engineer Matthew Murray.

[citation needed] In 1790, he bought the freehold of an acre of land on Water Lane in Holbeck near Leeds.

In 1821 Marshall was appointed Sheriff of Cumberland[3] and in 1826 was elected a Member of Parliament for Yorkshire in the House of Commons.

[4] In 1830, he resigned his seat due to ill health and retired to the country home he had built in 1815, Hallsteads, near Watermillock on the shore of Ullswater in the Lake District.