John Methuen

John Methuen (1650–1706) was an English lawyer, member of Parliament and diplomat, born the son of a wealthy Wiltshire cloth merchant. Called to the Bar in 1674, he rose to be Master in Chancery and held office as both Lord Chancellor of Ireland and English ambassador to Portugal.

During the War of the Spanish Succession he negotiated the Methuen Treaty of 1703: English textiles were admitted into Portugal while Portuguese wines paid no more duty in England than French wine. The agreement bound the two economies for decades and made port an English staple.