Sir John Thomas Briggs (4 June 1781 – 3 February 1865) was an English civil servant who was accountant-general of the Royal Navy.
At the age of 25, he was appointed secretary to the commission for "revising and digesting" the Royal Navy's civil affairs, under the presidency of Lord Barham, in which capacity he was the virtual author of the voluminous reports issued by the commission from 1806 to 1809.
Briggs was then appointed assistant-secretary of the victualling board, a post which he held till, in 1830, he was selected by Sir James Graham, then first lord of the admiralty, as his private secretary; but was shortly afterwards advanced to be commissioner and accountant-general of the victualling board.
He held this office for the next 22 years, during which term many and important improvements were made in the system of accounts, in the framing of the naval estimates, in the method of paying the seamen, and, more especially, in enabling them to remit part of their pay to their wives and families.
His son, Sir John Henry Briggs, chief clerk at the admiralty, was knighted on his retirement in 1870, after a service of forty-two years.