GARTH, John (1701-64), of Brownston (or Garth) House, Devizes.

John Garth came of a family settled in the 17th century at Bolam, co. Durham. His uncle, Sir Samuel Garth, was physician-general to the army and physician-in-ordinary to George I, author of The Dispensary and a prominent member of the Kit-Cat Club. He may have owed his appointment as recorder of Devizes to his cousin, John Colleton, who married an Ernle, of the prominent Wiltshire family with estates in the neighbourhood of Devizes, and had business dealings with Sir Joseph Eyles, M.P. for the borough.Namier, ’Charles Garth and his connexions’, EHR, liv. 444-6. On Eyles’s death in 1740 Garth was returned on his own interest for Devizes, which he represented unopposed till his death. In 1756 he could speak of ‘constant attendance and steady concurrence in the support of the measures of Government in Parliament without any assistance or return.’Garth to Newcastle, 14 Apr. 1756, Add 32864, f. 263. When he died, 24 Dec. 1764, he was succeeded by his son, Charles Garth, both as recorder and as M.P. for the borough.