John Maire was a leading English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 Roman Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

 conveyancer.

Maire was son of Thomas Maire of Lartington

Lartington

Lartington is a village in Teesdale, in the Pennines of England, situated near to the town of Barnard Castle. It was historically located in the North Riding of Yorkshire but along with the rest of the former Startforth Rural District it was transferred to County Durham for administrative and...

, Yorkshire

Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...

, and an elder brother of the Roman Catholic priest William Maire. He was admitted to Gray's Inn

Gray's Inn

The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court in London. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wales, an individual must belong to one of these Inns...

 in 1727; as a Catholic, Maire could not be called to the bar, and so he built up a conveyancing

Conveyancing

In law, conveyancing is the transfer of legal title of property from one person to another, or the granting of an encumbrance such as a mortgage or a lien....

 practice. He married Mary Lawson, who survived him, and had a seat

English country house

The English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a London house. This allowed to them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these people, the term distinguished between town and country...

 at Lartington Hall.

Further reading

• Joseph Gillow
  Joseph Gillow
  Joseph Gillow was an English Roman Catholic antiquary and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics"....
  
  , A literary and biographical history of the English Catholics