John inherited quite a lot from his family, and not all of it was good.

His father passed away in 1718 when he was just four years old, and his mother died the

year after that.

To add tragedy to his story, her death was most likely preventable.

It seems that she had the money in the bank to buy food and medicine, but she preferred

not to spend it and died as a result.

The rest of his childhood was spent in a boarding school in London, but he stayed in contact

with his mother's brother, Uncle Harvey.

But Harvey was just like his sister in a lot of ways.

Despite owning a massive country estate, he chose not to spend the money on upkeep and

repairs, and the home soon fell to ruin.

When he died, John inherited all of that unspent money.

In fact, John had become insanely rich, between the money left to him by his parents and

then his uncle, it's estimated that he was worth roughly $130 million in modern American

currency.

But as he matured, John showed just how much like his forebears he truly was.

Despite his elevated social standing, he became more and more of a miser with his fortune.

It's said that rather than buy new clothing for himself, John simply repurposed the clothes

of dead relatives, then his own country estate fell to ruin from that same sort of miserly

neglect.

Even after rising to the position of Parliament, he refused to use the massive fortune he possessed,

so it's no surprise that by the age of 70, he was worth an estimated $300 million

...