Sir John Major, 1st Baronet (17 May 1698 – 22 February 1781) was a British merchant, Member of Parliament and Sheriff of Sussex. Major was born at Bridlington in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and started in business there, commanding a ship in the Stockholm trade. He apparently abandoned the sea at the age of around 30, but subsequently developed a thriving iron trade becoming eventually the largest dealer in the country. He built up a considerable fortune, acquiring extensive estates in Suffolk and Sussex and other land elsewhere in England, to a value of around £5,000 a year. Nevertheless, he put his shipping interests at the service of the nation when necessary, apparently at considerable cost to himself, providing ships to transport troops in time of war on more than one occasion.