John Temple Leader

John Temple Leader (7 May 1810 – 1 March 1903) was an English politician and connoisseur.

Early life Born at his father's house, Putney Hill Villa, on 7 May 1810, he was the younger son of Mary and William Leader, a London merchant, and Whig Member of Parliament for Camelford and then Winchelsea. He entered Charterhouse School in 1823, but left shortly to study with a private tutor, the Rev. Patrick Smyth, and visited Ireland, Norway, and France. The accidental death at Oxford of his older brother William in February 1826 made him heir to most of his father's large fortune, which he inherited on his father's death on 13 January 1828.

On 12 February 1828 Leader matriculated as a gentleman commoner at Christ Church, Oxford, meeting there James Robert Hope Scott, W. E. Gladstone, and Sir Stephen Glynne with whom he made archæological excursions. In his Oxford vacations he continued his travels, and was in Paris during the July Revolution of 1830; and there, through his father's friend Henry Brougham, he came to know leading liberal politicians. He took no degree, and after leaving Oxford went into politics.

Death Leader died at 14 Piazza dei Pitti, Florence, on 1 March 1903, aged 92. Late in life he had adopted the Roman Catholic faith, and he was buried with Catholic rites.

Legacy Leader's fortune amounted to £250,000. He made bequests to educational and charitable institutions in Florence, including money for the restoration of the central bronze door of the Duomo. The rest of his property in England and Italy, including Vincigliata, was bequeathed to his great-nephew Richard Luttrell Pilkington Bethell, 3rd Baron Westbury.

There is a public park named after Leader and land of his original estate: Leader's Gardens in Putney.

Works A biography of Sir John Hawkwood, Giovanni Acuto, came out in Italian at Florence in 1889 in the names of Leader and Giuseppe Marcotti; it was translated into English by Leader Scott in 1889. His Life of Sir Robert Dudley, Duke of Northumberland (Florence, 1895), acknowledges in the preface Leader Scott's assistance. An Italian translation appeared at Florence in 1896.

Family On 19 August 1867 Leader married, on a rare visit to London, by special licence, Maria Louisa di Leoni, widow of Count Antonio di Leoni and daughter of Constantine Raimondi. She died at Florence on 5 February 1906, without issue.