Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Monson, John (1693-1748)
MONSON, Sir JOHN, first Baron Monson (1693–1748), son of George Monson of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, by Anne, daughter of Charles Wren of the Isle of Ely, was born in 1693. He matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 26 Jan. 1708. On 4 April 1722 he was returned to parliament for the city of Lincoln, and was re-elected on 30 Aug. 1727. Created a knight of the Bath (17 June 1725), when that order was reconstituted by George I, he succeeded to the family baronetcy, in March 1727, on the death of his uncle Sir William. On 28 May of the following year he was created a peer, with the title of Baron Monson of Burton, Lincolnshire. Lord Hervey in mentioning him among the new creations calls him wrongly Sir William (Mem. i. 89). In June 1733 Monson was named captain of the band of gentlemen pensioners, and in June 1737 was appointed first commissioner of trade and plantations. In this office he was confirmed when the board was reconstituted in 1745, and he continued to hold it till his death. He was also, on 31 July 1737, made a privy councillor.
Monson died on 20 July 1748, and the Duke of Newcastle, in a letter to the Duke of Bedford, dated 12 Aug. 1748, condoles with him upon 'the loss of so valuable a man and so amiable a friend,' and Bedford in reply uses similar expressions of regret (Bedford Corr. i. 440-1). By his wife, Lady Margaret Watson, youngest daughter of Lewis, first earl of Rockingham, whom he married on S April 1725, he had three sons, viz. John, second baron Monson (see below) ; Lewis Thomas, who assumed the name of Watson, and was created Baron Sondes in 1760 ; and George Monson [q. v.]
John Monson, second baron (1727-1774), born 23 July 1727, was created LL.D. of Cambridge University in 1749. On 5 Nov. 1765 he was appointed warden and chief justice in eyre of the forests south of Trent (Gent. Mag. 1765, p. 539). On the fall of the first Rockingham ministry he was offered an earldom on the condition that he would relinquish the place ; he declined the proposal (Rockingham, Mem. ii. 17, 18 ; and Walpole, Mem. George III, ii. 368). He ultimately resigned with Portland and other whigs on 27 Nov. (Rockingham, Mem. ii. 25); but is mentioned by Walpole (Mem. of George III, ii. 454) as subsequently voting with the court on Bedford's motion that the privy council should take notice of the action of the Massachusetts assembly in pardoning the late insurrection. In 1768 he signed a protest against the bill to limit the dividends of the East India Company (Protests of the Lords, ii. 98). Monson died at his house in Albemarle Street on 23 July 1774 (Gent. Mag. p. 334). He married, 23 June 1752, Theodosia, daughter of John Maddison, esq., of Harpswell, Lincolnshire, by whom he had five sons and two daughters. His fourth son, William (1760-1807), is separately noticed.
[Lodge's Genealogy of the Peerage ; Foster's Peerage and Alumni Oxon. 1500-1714; Hist. Reg. 1725 p. 25, 1728 p. 30, 1733 p. 30, 1737 p. 8 ; Gent. Mag. 1733, p. 328; Return of Members of Parl.; authorities cited above.]