Sir John Rushout, 4th Baronet

Captain Sir John Rushout, 4th Baronet, (6 February 1685 – 2 February 1775) was a British army officer and Whig politician who represented Malmesbury and Evesham in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1713 to 1768. A supporter of William Pulteney and opponent of Robert Walpole, he was briefly part of the short-lived ministry. Rushout was Father of the House from 1762 until 1768.

Early life and army career

John Rushout was the fourth son of Sir James Rushout, 1st Baronet and his wife, Alice Pitt, the daughter of Edmund Pitt. His elder brother James succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father. He graduated from Eton College in 1698 and joined the English Army. He was a cornet in the Royal Horse Guards in 1705 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1706. In 1710, he became captain. On the death of his nephew, the third baronet, on 21 September 1711 he succeeded to the baronetcy and most of the family's estates in Worcestershire. He resigned his British Army commission in January 1712 which he later claimed was to pre-empt his dismissal under the Duke of Ormond's policy of weeding out Whig officers in order to defeat the Hanoverian succession. In 1729, he married Lady Anne Compton, the sixth daughter of George Compton, 4th Earl of Northampton in 1729.

On the fall of Walpole in 1742, Rushout, with Samuel Sandys, and Phillips Gybbon became Pulteney's representatives on the new Treasury board, where they combined to outvote the first lord, Wilmington. He was elected to the secret committee of enquiry into the Walpole ministry, but defended John Scrope, the secretary of the Treasury, for refusing to give evidence. When Pelham replaced Wilmington, under a compromise, Rushout was appointed Treasurer of the Navy in 1743 and was made a Privy Counsellor in 1744.

However, he was turned out of office with most of Bath's followers in 1744. He spoke against the Queen of Hungary's subsidy on 18 February 1745 with the intention of sowing dissensions between the Old Whigs and the Government's new allies. He also refused to make any payments from the sums standing in his account as treasurer of the navy, thus holding up payments, for 8 or 9 months, to all the seamen who had not received their pay up to the date of his dismissal.

When Bath and Granville made their abortive attempt to form what became known as the "short-lived ministry" in February 1746, he was expected to be appointed Leader of the House of Commons, but Pulteney's attempt to form a government collapsed before Rushout could be offered the position. He was returned at Evesham at the 1747 British general election and joined the Leicester House party. He was put down to have a peerage and the pay office when the Prince came to the throne. After Frederick's death in 1751 he attached himself to Newcastle in the hopes of a peerage .

Death and legacy Rushout died on 2 February 1775 leaving a son and two daughters. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his son John.