James Bannerman

For other people named James Bannerman, see James Bannerman (disambiguation).

James Bannerman (12 March 1790 – 18 March 1858) was a lieutenant and acting governor of the Gold Coast (part of modern Ghana) from 4 December 1850 to 14 October 1851.^[1][2]

James Bannerman

Life

James Bannerman was born a native of the Gold Coast in 1790 to a Fanti mother and a British father from Scotland, Colonel Henry Bannerman.^[3][4] Bannerman was educated in the Gold Coast and in Europe. Returning to the Gold Coast as a merchant, he was appointed a Justice of the Peace and was Civil Commandant of Christiansborg, Accra, from 1850 to 1857. He succeeded Governor William Winniett, who had died, as Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, and helped to introduce the Legislative Council of the Gold Coast.^[5]

He married an Ashanti princess, Yaa Hom or Yeboah, daughter of Osei Bonsu^[5] who was taken prisoner at the Battle of Katamanso in 1826.^[6] Together they had six children including Charles (who in 1857 founded the Accra Herald, later called the West African Herald),^[7] Edmund and James Junior. Thomas Hutton-Mills, Sr., was a grandson, and Charles Edward Woolhouse Bannerman a great-grandson.^[5]