He was the fifth son and twelfth child of Thomas West, 2nd Baron De La Warr, and was born at Testwood in Hampshire, . He came to Virginia in 1618. He was a member of the House of Burgesses. In 1630, the decision was made to plant a settlement on the York River, "... for the securing & taking in of a tract of Land called ye fforest bordering uppon the cheife residence of ye Pamunkey King the most dangerous head of the Indian enemy..." John West received one of the first grants issued for this purpose, 600 acres "on the east side of Felgates". "Felgates" refers to Robert Felgate's 1632 grant of "350 acres lying at Kiskeyacke upon Pamunkey". West sold the 600 acres, along with adjoining land, to Edward Digges in 1650;. It became known as the "E.D." plantation, renamed by later owners as "Belfield". West subsequently patented 3300 acres at the fork of York River, at the site which eventually developed into the present-day town of West Point. After his death the land passed to his son John West and then to his grandson John West III and to his great-grandson Charles West. Charles West had no issue. His will left the West Point estate to his mother, and after her death to his first cousinThomas West "and the heirs male of his body lawfully begotten, for ever..." The entail was broken in November 1761, when a trust was established to enable 1000 acres of the land to be sold in order to purchase slaves. West patented a further 1550 acres in 1651, and 1000 acres in Gloucester County in 1654. In 1635, after the "thrusting out" of Governor Sir John Harvey, John West was chosen as temporary replacement., and served until 1637 when Harvey was restored to his position. In 1640 West was ordered to England, along with three other "thrusters", to answer charges in the Star Chamber. All four were eventually cleared, and returned to Virginia.
West's 3000-acre land grant on the York River became the location of the present town of West Point, Virginia. He died by March 1659/1660, when the Virginia Assembly passed the following act in recognition of his family's services to the colonial enterprise:
