John Sargent (24 December 1750 – 24 January 1824) was an American Loyalist during American Revolution who was exiled to Canada where he became a politician.[1]
Early life
Sargent was born in Salem, Massachusetts on 24 December 1750. He was the second son of Colonel Epes Sargent, by his second wife, the widow Catharine Browne. He was a younger brother to Paul Dudley Sargent, a distinguished Revolutionary War soldier, and the younger half-brother to Winthrop Sargent (1727–1793) and Daniel Sargent Sr. (1730–1806), a prominent merchant.[2]
Sargent, a Methodist merchant, was the very first signatory among the Salem Addressers of Governor Thomas Gage on his arrival in Salem in 1774,[3] and thus during the American Revolution he was proscribed and exiled in the Banishment Act of the State of Massachusetts in 1778.[4]
In 1784, Sargent married widow Margaret (née Whitney) Barnard in Boston. Together, they were the parents of three sons, all of whom also served in the Assembly, and a daughter, born in Nova Scotia:[5]