John Oldham (ōl´dəm), c.1600–1636, colonist in New England, b. England. A trader, he emigrated to Plymouth in 1623 but was banished (1624) because of his opposition to the strict government. Later he was involved in establishing the unsuccessful settlement on Cape Ann (1626), several of the settlements in the Massachusetts Bay colony, and Wethersfield, Conn. His murder by the Pequot on Block Island was one of the events leading to the Pequot War (1637).

John Oldham, 1653–83, English poet and satirist. His best-known works are the ironical Satires against the Jesuits (1681) and A Satire against Virtue (1679). He was much admired by Dryden, who wrote the beautiful "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham," included in Oldham's collected works (1684).

See study by P. Hammond (1984).