Name Joseph Banks | ||
Joseph Banks (21 June 1695 – 31 March 1741) was a British landowner and MP.
He was born the son of Joseph Banks of Scofton, Nottinghamshire and trained in the law at the Middle Temple. He succeeded his father in 1727, inheriting the family home at Revesby Abbey, Lincolnshire, which his father had bought in 1711.
He served as a Lieutenant in the Nottinghamshire militia in 1715. After serving as MP for Peterborough from 1728 to 1734, he was appointed High Sheriff of Lincolnshire for 1735–36.
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1730.
He married twice, firstly Anne, the daughter and heiress of merchant William Hodgkinson of Overton, Derbyshire, with whom he had 3 sons and 3 daughters and secondly Catherine Collingwood, widow of Newcomen Wallis, with whom he had a further 2 sons. His son William, also an MP, was the father of Sir Joseph Banks, the eminent botanist.