Sir John Evelyn, 1st Baronet, of Wotton

Sir John Evelyn, 1st Baronet (1 March 1682 – July 1763) of Wotton, Surrey, was a British official and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1708 to 1710.

His grandfather, the diarist John Evelyn, influenced his independent attitude in politics and stimulated his dedication to literature.

[2] Evelyn came under the patronage of Sidney Godolphin, Lord Treasurer, a close family friend who helped him to government places.

Evelyn had been advised by his grandfather, that if he sought electoral success, to do so 'without affectation and vainglory .. or the being carried away by a faction or to serve a party'.

In 1705, he led his family's tenants to vote for the Tory in protest against the corruption of the Whig financier Sir William Scawen.

He was returned as Member of Parliament for Helston which was dominated by his Whig patron Godolphin, at a by election on 15 December 1708.