John Orrell Lever (1824 – 4 August 1897)[1] was an English shipping owner and politician who sat in the House of Commons in two periods between 1859 and 1885.

[3] Lever had diverse business interests, including cotton, linen, and corn mills in Lancashire and Ireland, the exports of finished products from Liverpool, and especially steam shipping.

Lever and his partners did successfully manage to lobby for several transatlantic mail contracts between Great Britain and Canada.

He wanted to see every man, woman and child in Galway well fed, well clad, and well housed; their children well educated; bonnets on the heads of the working men's wives, good boots and stockings on their feet, and a twelve pound leg of mutton in their kitchen ranges every Sunday and Thursday, with all the appropriate accompaniments.

[7] At the 1880 election, Walker records him as a Home Rule League candidate,[7] but Debrett's in 1881 describes as a Liberal-Conservative.