James Douglas Stoddart Douglas

James Douglas Stoddart Douglas (1793 – 25 February 1875^[1]) was a British Conservative Party politician.

Life

James Douglas Stoddart was born in 1793, the son of George Alexander Stoddart and mother known only by the surname Bridges.

He served in the Royal Navy, promoted to Lieutenant in 1815 on HMS Doris, under Captain Robert O'Brien, then on the East India station. He became a Lieutenant in the Yeomanry Cavalry.^[2] He was elected at the 1841 general election as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Rochester, but was defeated at the 1847 general election.^[3][4]

Family

Stoddart, as he then was, married, firstly, Margaret Braziere Douglas, daughter of George Douglas, in 1830. Margaret and her father, George, were both adopted.^[5] George Douglas of Chilston Park (died 1833) was a slave-owner in Trinidad and Tobago; he left property to Margaret and her husband.^[6] Stoddart changed his name to James Douglas Stoddart Douglas in 1833.^[7] A further inheritance towards the end of his life led to him styling himself James Douglas of Baads; it related to the Scottish estate of Baads in West Calder (also Badds), which had earlier passed from George Douglas to Alexander Houston-Douglas, then Elizabeth Houston-Douglas. It went subsequently to Aretas Akers-Douglas, 1st Viscount Chilston.^[8][9]

He married, secondly, Jane Sarah Jenkin, daughter of James Jenkin R.E., in 1866.^[10]

References

1. The Illustrated London News. Elm House. 1875. p. 167.
2. • O'Byrne, William Richard (1849). "Douglas, James Stoddart" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary . John Murray – via Wikisource.
3. Craig, F. W. S. (1989) [1977]. British parliamentary election results 1832–1885 (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 258. ISBN 0-900178-26-4.
4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "R" (part 2)
5. The Douglas Archives
6. "Summary of Individual George Douglas of Chilston Park, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". Retrieved 11 November 2017.
7. "James Douglas Stoddart Douglas ne James Douglas Stoddart". Retrieved 11 November 2017.
8. Hall, Catherine; Draper, Nicholas; McClelland, Keith; Katie Donington; Rachel Lang (28 August 2014). Legacies of British Slave-ownership. Cambridge University Press. p. 45. ISBN 9781107040052. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
9. A Native (1885). "History of West Calder, Compiled From Various Sources of Information, by a Native". Internet Archive. West Calder: Printed by A. H. Aikman, Reporter Office. pp. 68 et seq. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
10. Walford, Edward (1869). The County Families of the United Kingdom Or, Royal Manual of the Titled and Untitled Aristocracy of Great Britain and Ireland ... R. Hardwicke. p. 303.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by James Douglas

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Thomas Hobhouse Ralph Bernal	Member of Parliament for Rochester 1841 – 1847 With: William Bodkin	Succeeded by Ralph Bernal Thomas Twisden Hodges