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PHILIPPS, Sir JOHN (1666?-1737), of Picton Castle , Pembrokeshire , religious, educational, and social reformer son of Sir Erasmus Philipps (see under Philipps family of Picton) and Catherine Darcy, daughter of Philip Stanhope, 1st earl of Chesterfield. The year of his birth is not known. According to the inscription on his monument in S. Mary's church, Haverfordwest, he d. ‘January 5, 1736/7, in the 77th year of his age.’ This suggests 1660, which cannot be correct, as his father married for the second time on 1 Sept. 1660, and Sir John was the second child of this second marriage. He entered Westminster School as King's Scholar in 1679; as the usual age for this was about 13, it appears that he was born c. 1666. He was at Trinity College, Cambridge, 1682-4, and was admitted to Lincoln's Inn, 21 Jan. 1683/4. His age is not mentioned in the registers of any of the above nor in that of the House of Commons. He left Cambridge without a degree and was not called to the Bar. A letter from Sir Erasmus to him at Cambridge suggests that he was extravagant in his expenses and warns him to have ‘no more foolish frolics’ (N.L.W. Picton Castle MSS., 30 April 1683).

Little is known of his subsequent career till 1695, when, in Dec. of that year, he was returned Member of Parliament for Pembroke borough; he held the seat till 1702. He re-entered Parliament and was Member for Haverfordwest till 1722. His father d. 18 Jan. 1696/7, and on 12 Dec. 1697, Sir John, as 4th baronet, m. Mary, daughter and heiress of Anthony Smith, a rich East India merchant. She d. 18 Nov. 1722, leaving three sons and three daughters. His sister Elizabeth's daughter m. Sir Robert Walpole in 1700.

From 1695 to 1737 Sir John was a leading figure in all the religious and philanthropic movements of the day — the Society for the Reformation of Manners, the S.P.C.K., the S.P.G., the East India Mission, and the Holy Club. He kept in constant touch with such religious reformers as A. H. Francke, A. W. Boehme, J. F. Osterwald, John and Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield, who was maintained by him for a while at Oxford. He was elected a member of the S.P.C.K. a month after it was founded, and remained its most influential member till his death. He made Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire the chief centres of the Society's work in Wales, founded twenty-two schools in the former county and several in the latter, and was chiefly responsible for the success of the early undertakings of his brother-in-law, Griffith Jones, Llanddowror (q.v.), husband of his sister Margaret.

Bibliography:

Registers of Westminster School, Trinity College, Cambridge, Lincoln's Inn;
S.P.C.K. MSS.;
S.P.G. records;
N.L.W. Picton Castle MSS.;
L. Tyerman, The Life of the Rev. George Whitefield, 1890, The Oxford Methodists, 1873;
Thomas Shankland, ‘The Charity School Movement in Wales’ in Trans. Cymm., 1904-5 and ‘Diwygwyr Cymru’ in Ser. G., 1901-3;
J. J. Evans, Cymry Enwog y Ddeunawfed Ganrif, 1937;
M. G. Jones, The Charity School Movement, 1938;
W. M. Williams, ‘The friends of Griffith Jones’ in Cymm., 1939;
D. Salmon, ‘The Good Sir John Philipps’ in The Western Telegraph, 29 May 1941;
Mary Clement, Correspondence and Minutes relating to Wales, 1699-1740 (Univ. of Wales Press);
S.P.C.K. and Wales, 1699-1740 (S.P.C.K., 1954);
T. Kelly, Griffith Jones, Llanddowror (Univ. of Wales Press, 1950).

Author:

Mrs. Mary Gwendoline Ellis, M.A., Aberystwyth

Corrections and additions:

PHILIPPS, Sir JOHN (DWB, 755). Catherine, the second wife of Sir Erasmus Philipps and the mother of Sir John, was the daughter of Edward Darcy by his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Philip (Stanhope), first Earl of Chesterfield. She d. 15 Nov. 1713.