John Meres

Sir John Meres (c.1660 – 15 February 1736) knight, FRS of Kirby Bellars, Leicestershire was the director of a number of companies in the early 18th century, including the Charitable Corporation, the York Buildings Company, and Company of Mineral and Battery Works. He was also one of the Six Clerks in Chancery (a sinecure).

John Meres was the second son (but main devisee - his elder brother Thomas was disinherited) of Sir Thomas Meres, a Lincolnshire gentleman who for many years was Member of Parliament for Lincoln and Anne de la Fontaine, daughter and heiress of Erasmus de la Fontaine of Kirby Bellars, Leicestershire.

He was educated at St Catharine's College, Cambridge, studied law at the Inner Temple and was called to the bar in 1700.

He was knighted by William III on 26 December 1700. In 1704, he was party to a deed with the Hollow Sword Blade Company. In 1721 and 1722 in the wake of the South Sea Bubble, he was in dispute with the Duke of Portland over the sale of £20,000 worth of South Sea Company stock. He was appointed High Sheriff of Lincolnshire for 1715 and elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1719.

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