{{Short description|British landowner and Whig politician}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2017}} {{Use British English|date=May 2017}} thumb|New Hall (or Palace of Beaulieu), Boreham '''John Olmius, 1st Baron Waltham''' (18 July 1711 – 5 October 1762), of New Hall, Boreham, Essex, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1737 and 1762.
==Background== Olmius was the only son of John Olmius, of Braintree, Essex, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, and his wife Elizabeth Clarke, daughter and heiress of Thomas Clarke, a London merchant. He was the grandson of a wealthy Dutch merchant who had settled in England. He acquired New Hall near Boreham, Essex, in 1737.<ref name ="hop">{{cite web| url =http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1715-1754/member/olmius-john-1711-62 | title= OLMIUS, John (1711-62), of New Hall, Boreham, Essex. | publisher= History of Parliament Online (1715-1754)| accessdate = 22 May 2019 }}</ref>
==Political career== Olmius was returned to Parliament as one of four representatives for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis at a by-election on 10 March 1737.<ref name="hop"/> He was returned as MP for Colchester instead at the 1741 British general election but was unseated on petition on 26 February 1742.<ref name="hop"/> He was a supporter of Walpole and later Newcastle and Pelham. From 1746 to 1747 he was High Sheriff of Essex.<ref name="hop"/>
Olmius remained out of Parliament for twelve years, but at the 1754 British general election he was once again returned for Colchester.<ref name=HOP2>[http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/olmius-john-1711-62#footnote3_sltjsz0 ''The History of Parliament'': OLMIUS, John (1711-62), of New Hall, Boreham, Essex. (Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964)]</ref> At the 1761 British general election, he was returned for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis for a second time.<ref name=HOP2/> Olmius had applied to Lord Bute for an English peerage in the 1761 coronation honours but was overlooked.<ref name=HOP2/> However, in June 1762, only four months before his death, he was raised to the Peerage of Ireland as '''Baron Waltham''', of Philipstown in the King's County.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=10206 |date=4 May 1762 |page=3 }}</ref>
==Family== Lord Waltham married Anne Billers, daughter and heiress of Sir William Billers, of Thorley, Hertfordshire, Lord Mayor of London, in 1741. They had one son and a daughter. He died in October 1762, aged 51, and was succeeded in the barony by his only son, Drigue, on whose death in 1787 the title became extinct.<ref name=HOP2/> Waltham's daughter and eventual heiress the Honourable Elizabeth Olmius married John Luttrell, later 3rd Earl of Carhampton, who later assumed the additional surname of Olmius in respect of his father-in-law.<ref>[http://thepeerage.com/p20433.htm#i204330 thepeerage.com John Olmius, 1st Baron Waltham]</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-par|gb}} {{s-bef| before = Edward Tucker | before2 = Thomas Pearse | before3 = George Dodington | before4 = John Tucker }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis | with = Thomas Pearse, | with2 = George Dodington | with3 = and John Tucker | years = 1737–1741 }} {{s-aft| after = John Tucker | after2= Joseph Damer | after3= John Raymond | after4= James Steuart }} {{s-bef| before = Matthew Martin| before2 = Jacob Houblon }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Colchester | with = Matthew Martin | years = 1741–1742 }} {{s-aft| after = Samuel Savill| after2= Charles Gray }} {{s-bef| before = Charles Gray| before2 = Richard Savage Nassau }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Colchester | with = Charles Gray 1754–1755 | with2 = Isaac Martin Rebow 1755–1761 | years = 1754–1761 }} {{s-aft| after = Isaac Martin Rebow| after2= Charles Gray }} {{s-bef| before = Welbore Ellis | before2 = Lord John Cavendish | before3 = George Dodington | before4 = John Tucker }} {{s-ttl| title = Member of Parliament for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis | with = John Tucker, | with2 = Sir Francis Dashwood, Bt | with3 = and Richard Glover | years = 1761–1762 }} {{s-aft| after = John Tucker | after2= Sir Francis Dashwood, Bt | after3= Richard Glover | after4= Richard Jackson }} {{s-reg|ie}} {{s-new|creation}} {{s-ttl | title = Baron Waltham | years = June–October 1762 }} {{s-aft | after = Drigue Olmius }} {{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waltham, John Olmius, 1st Baron}} Category:1711 births Category:1762 deaths 1 Category:Peers of Ireland created by George III Category:High sheriffs of Essex Category:British people of Dutch descent Category:Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Category:British MPs 1734–1741 Category:British MPs 1741–1747 Category:British MPs 1754–1761 Category:British MPs 1761–1768 Category:People from Boreham