John Sargent (1780–1833), was the eldest son of John Sargent, Member of Parliament for Seaford in 1790, and his wife Charlotte. He was educated at Eton, where he was a king’s scholar, and King’s College, Cambridge, where he was elected to a fellowship and graduated B.A. 1804, M.A. 1807.
At Cambridge, Charles Simeon was the means under God of first leading Sargent to serious views of religion. His friendship with Simeon helped to shape his career. He had been intended for the bar, but he was ordained deacon in 1805, and priest in 1806. On the presentation of his father he was instituted in 1805 to the family living of Graffham in Sussex, and from 1813 he held with it a second family rectory, that of Woollavington.
On his father’s death he became the squire of the district. He died at Woollavington in May 1833, and was buried there. In 1804 Sargent married Mary Smith, niece to Lord Carrington and a first cousin of William Wilberforce. They had two sons, who died young, and five daughters.
John Sargent wrote a Memoir of Rev Henry Martyn, published by the Trust (with the additional material in the 1862 edition) as The Life and Letters of Henry Martyn.