John Stewart

John Stewart (1789 – 14 March 1860) was a British Conservative and Tory politician.

He was one of the first mixed-race Member of Parliament (MP) of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Family

Stewart was an illegitimate son of former Camelford Tory MP John Stewart (1754/5–1826) and Mary Duncan, who was Black. Upon his father's death, he took ownership of plantations in Grenada and Demerara, as well as the family home in Albany, London. However, by 1830, he was living in Wellington Street, Westminster, with his wife, Elizabeth, née Vincent, and son William Duncan Stewart (born April 1829). On 14 December 1848, Stewart remarried to Phoebe Rossiter, daughter of Joseph Rossiter.

Member of Parliament

Stewart became one of parliament's first mixed-race MPs when he was elected Tory MP for Lymington at the 1832 general election. During this election, he defended his record as a slave owner and rebuffed arguments that slaves on his Demerara estates were subject to cruelty. After his election, he presented a petition to the Commons against the abolition of slavery, and often spoke in defence of West Indian plantation owners, sharing concerns over apprenticeships and sugar duties with other MPs with West Indian interests. While his career was "undistinguished", "the bigoted anti-colour party in the West Indies could never get over his election by an English borough, but he was extremely popular with his constituents".