He was born in Truro, the second son of William Lemon by his marriage to Anne, the daughter of John Willyams of Carnanton House, and was the grandson of William Lemon the Elder (1696–1760), who had acquired a substantial estate at Carclew in 1749, and the younger brother of Sir William Lemon, 1st Baronet.[1][2][3]
In 1784 he was elected to the House of Commons for West Looe, a seat he held only briefly. He returned to the Commons as a member for Saltash between 1787 and 1790.[5] In 1796 he was able to buy from Viscount Falmouth a life interest in one of the seats at the pocket boroughofTruro[7] and was duly elected for Truro that year, holding the seat until his death in 1814.[5]
On 17 January 1804 Lemon was appointed as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, serving for only a month. According to convention, this meant he had to give up his Parliamentary seat on appointment to the Crown Office and seek re-election to his seat at a by-election in February, at which he was re-elected.
Lemon was an amateur musician and composer. The Cathedral Psalter Chants (1874) included his Double Chant in G, while there is also a Chant in D. A Double Chant in F is in The Parish Psalter with Chants (1932).[6]
^'Sir William Lemon' in Annual Biography and Obituary (1826), pp. 441-442
^Pamela Dodds, Building Country Houses on Cornish Estates 1730–1830 (2002), paperArchived 22 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine for Cornish History Network conference
^Nicholas Carlisle, A concise description of the endowed grammar schools in England, vol. 1 (1818), p. 151
^ abcStanley T. Bindoff, John S. Roskell, Lewis Namier, The House of Commons 3, (1983), p. 34: "LEMON, John (1754–1814), of Truro, Cornw. West Looe 5 Apr.-Aug. 1784 Saltash 7 May 1787-1790 Truro 1796-5 Apr. 1814 b. 6 Nov. 1754, 2nd s. of William Lemon and bro. of William Lemon (qv). educ. Harrow 1770-1."
^ abcHumphreys, Maggie & Evans, Robert, 1997. Dictionary of composers for the Church in Great Britain and Ireland. London: Mansell. p 206
^Roland G. Thorne, The House of Commons 1790-1820 (History of Parliament Trust, 1986), p. 87: "Falmouth seems to have allayed any such fears by selling John Lemon a life interest in the seat in 1796, Lemon being presumably acceptable to his opponents at Truro."