William James MP

1791 - 1861

Claimant or beneficiary

Biography

Baptized in Liverpool (Paradise Street Unitarian Chapel, although he later practised as an Anglican): his paternal grandfather, William (1735-1798) had made a fortune as a 'West India merchant' [and slave-owner].

Under his grandfather's will (1798), written after the death of his father (1795), he inherited the Jamaican estate [and the enslaved people upon it] and a mercantile fortune (though in trust to his maternal grandfather and uncles until he was 26, i.e. 1817).

His mother, inheritor of the Warburton Estate of Hefferton Grange, re-married (1801) to the Liverpool radical, Lt.-Col. George Williams.

1813: he purchased Barrock Lodge, near Carlisle (which had been built by James Graham, an East India Co. nabob painted by Zoffany).

Married Frances, daughter of William Calton Rutson, cotton broker of Liverpool, 26 February 1816. (Rutson was the sometime partner of William Ewart in Liverpool and Arthur Clegg, Manchester.)


Sources

T71/867 St Thomas-in-the-East claim no. 278 (Clifton Hill).

For more, see political legacies.

D. R. Fisher (ed.), The House of Commons 1820-1832 (7 vols., Cambridge, Cambridge University Press for the History of Parliament Trust, 2009), Vol. 5, pp. 839-44.


Further Information

Absentee?
British/Irish
Name in compensation records
William James
Spouse
Frances Rutson (m. 26 Feb., 1816)
Children
10 sons (6 d.v.p), 3 daughters (1 d.v.p)
School
Eton [1808 ]
University
Jesus College, then Trinity College, Cambridge [1808- ]
Religion
Anglican

Associated Claims (1)

£4,713 14s 9d
Beneficiary

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

  • SD - Association Start Date
  • SY - Association Start Year
  • EA - Earliest Known Association
  • ED - Association End Date
  • EY - Association End Year
  • LA - Latest Known Association
1798 [EA] - 1834 [LA] → Trust beneficiary

Legacies Summary

Political (1)

MP
Liberal (Radical) / West India interest 
election →
Carlisle Cumberland
1820 - 1826
election →
Carlisle Cumberland
1832 - 1835
election →
Cumberland Eastern Cumberland
1836 - 1847
parliamentary notes →
Ministerial plan for the abolition of slavery: House to go into Committee
House of Commons 29/07/1833

Relationships (3)

Grandson → Grandfather
Brother-in-laws
First Cousins

Addresses (1)

Barrock Lodge, Petterill Crooks, Cumberland, Northern England, England