Sir John Colleton (1608 - 1666) rose to rank in the King's army during the English Civil War, spent £40,000 in the service of Charles I, and lost much more when his property was seized by the forces of Parliament. He retired to Barbados and was one of about a dozen Stuart followers there who were knighted by Charles II.

He was a member of the Council for Foreign Plantations and of the Royal African Company which introduced slavery into British possessions in North America (not just in the South). He was an early promoter of the Carolina grant and actively interested in the successful development of the Province. He was the first Proprietor to die.

He had served as a colonel under John Berkeley, Baron Berkeley of Stratton in the royalist army during England's Civil Wars, but after Charles I's execution he migrated to Barbados, where he had become embroiled in a series of political intrigues involving royalists and Parliamentarians. Colleton had normally, although not always, supported the Royal faction, and immediately after the Restoration of 1660 like so many other royalists, he set out for London to claim his reward.

His connections in London were excellent; several of his relatives were London merchants, his friend Lord Berkeley enjoyed favor with the new government and his distant cousin George Monck, Duke of Albemarle was the hero of the Restoration. When Lord Berkeley presented a memorial to the King in Colleton's behalf, Charles II not only knighted Colleton but also promptly appointed him to the Council for Foreign Plantations.

Among Colleton's colleagues on the Council for Foreign Plantations were men knowledgeable about colonial settlement in America and influential in formulating colonial policy. Sir William Berkeley, governor of Virginia, was appointed when he returned to London in 1661. His brother, Lord Berkeley was important in naval affairs and very close to the Duke of York, Lord High Admiral and heir to the throne. Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, later to become the Earl of Shaftesbury, was a former owner of Barbados property. Others include Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon, Charles II's first minister, and Sir George Carteret vice chamberlain of the royal household and treasurer of the navy.

It was while he was working with these and other influentially placed men that Sir John Colleton seems to have conceived the idea of the Carolina proprietorship. His hope was to secure a royal charter, and for the achievement of this purpose he became associated with several of the most powerful men in the kingdom.