John Stratford, 1st Earl of Aldborough

John Stratford, 1st Earl of Aldborough (c. 1691 – 29 May 1777) was an Irish peer and politician.

Born at Ormond, he was the son of Edward Stratford and his first wife Elizabeth Baisley, daughter of Euseby Baisley of Ricketstown, Rathvilly, County Carlow. He was a descendant of the English Stratford family and was educated at Kilkenny College and at Trinity College, Dublin.

In 1717, he entered the Irish House of Commons for Baltinglass. Stratford sat for it until 1763, when he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as Baron Baltinglass, of Baltinglass, in the County of Wicklow. In 1776, he was advanced to the dignity of Viscount Aldborough, of the Palatinate of Upper Ormond. and on 28 January 1777, Stratford was further honoured when he became Viscount Amiens and Earl of Aldborough, of the Palatinate of Upper Ormond.

He was successively appointed High Sheriff of Kildare in 1727, High Sheriff of Wicklow in 1736 and High Sheriff of Wexford in 1739.

He ambitiously planned a new town of Stratford-on-Slaney, that failed in the 1840s.

He married Martha O'Neale, daughter of Venerable Benjamin O'Neale, Archdeacon of Leighlin. They had six sons and nine daughters. Stratford was succeeded in his titles successively by his oldest son Edward, his second son John and then his fourth son Benjamin.

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