John Jennings was born in about 1653 and arrived in North Carolina by 1672. A resident of Pasquotank, he served as a justice for the Albemarle County Court in 1684 and later as a justice of the Pasquotank Precinct Court. In 1703 Jennings accused his neighbor Mathew Winn of being a rogue and a hog stealer, and in response Winn sued Jennings for defamation. The court found that Winn had not stolen a hog, but instead had helped Tom Harriss recover his stray pig from Jennings' property. Jennings died in Pasquotank sometime in or after August 1718.