Sir John Major, 1st Baronet

He apparently abandoned the sea at the age of around 30, but subsequently developed a thriving iron trade becoming eventually the largest dealer in the country.

At the age of 60 he decided to stand for Parliament, and in 1761 was elected unopposed as MP for Scarborough (the nearest borough to Bridlington, where his business interests presumably gave him an influence); at the same election, his son-in-law Henniker was returned for Sudbury, and the two thereafter formed a close political and business partnership, seeking the government contracts that in those days were generally awarded to MPs ahead of their commercial rivals.

They secured among others a contract for victualling the British troops in West Florida, and grants of land – 20,000 acres (81 km2) each – in Nova Scotia.

(Henniker's letter to the Prime Minister, George Grenville, in which he put his case, quoted by Namier & Brooke, is the main source of information on Major's early life.)

He was also a Senior Elder Brother of Trinity House between 1741 and 1781, a director of the South Sea Company and was High Sheriff of Sussex for 1755–56.