Colonel John Selwyn (20 August 1688 – 5 November 1751) of Matson, Gloucestershire,a British Army officer, courtier and politician, sat in the House of Commons between 1715 and 1751. Selwyn was the eldest son of Lieutenant-general William Selwyn, MP of Matson, Gloucestershire. He was commissioned into the Army in his infancy as ensign and lieutenant of the 3rd Foot Guards on 31 December 1688. His father died in 1702 whilst Governor of Jamaica and he inherited the Matson estate. He became captain and lieutenant-colonel in the 1st Foot Guards in 1707 and served in Flanders as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Marlborough. By 1709, he married Mary Farrington, the daughter of Lieutenant-general Thomas Farrington MP of Chislehurst. He rose to the rank of Colonel of the 3rd Regiment of Foot in 1711