Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet

Sir John Gladstone, 1st Baronet, FRSE (11 December 1764 – 7 December 1851) was a Scottish merchant, slave owner and Tory politician best known for being the father of British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone. Born in Leith, Midlothian, through his commercial activities he acquired ownership over several slave plantations in the British colonies of Jamaica and Demerara-Essequibo; the Demerara rebellion of 1823, one of the most significant slave rebellions in the British Empire, was started on one of Gladstone's plantations.

The extent of his ownership of slaves was such that after slavery was abolished, through the passage of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, he received the largest of all compensated emancipation payments made via the Slave Compensation Act 1837 for the loss of his slaves. Gladstone proceeded to expel the majority of the newly emancipated African freedmen from his plantations and imported large numbers of indentured servants from British India as part of the Indian indenture system. This was done by false promises, relayed through his agents, of providing them jobs, schools and medical attention. However, upon arrival they were paid no wages, the repayment of their debts being deemed sufficient, and worked under conditions that continued to resemble slavery in everything except name .

During this period, he also sat in Parliament from 1818 to 1827. Dying in 1851, Gladstone's involvement in slavery heavily influenced the proslavery thought of his son during his early political career.