James_Beckford_Wildman

James Beckford Wildman

James Beckford Wildman

English businessman and politician

James Beckford Wildman (19 October 1789 – 25 May 1867)[1] was an English landowner and Tory politician[2] who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Colchester from 1818 to 1826. His properties included plantations in Jamaica[3] and Chilham Castle[4] in Kent, England, which he sold in 1861. The Jamaican plantation, Quebec Estate, was obtained by the Wildman family from William Beckford. Beckford claimed to have been swindled by the Wildmans, who pressured him to sign over the property under threat of calling in outstanding mortgages.

Quebec Estate was one of the largest sugar plantations in Jamaica with well over 800 slaves (the average at that time was 200). The profits from this plantation allowed Thomas Wildman to purchase (and renovate) Newstead Abbey from Lord Byron.

In 1830, Wildman complained to Viscount Goderich about the treatment of one of his slaves, Eleanor James, by the proprietor of an estate called North Hall. (James was flogged for requesting payment for a hog.) In 1840, Joseph John Gurney visited the estate and described the trial of a Myalist that took place there.

References

  1. [1]
    Foster, Joseph (1888–1892). "Wildman, James Beckford" . Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886. Oxford: Parker and Co – via Wikisource.
  2. [2]
    Stooks Smith, Henry. (1973) [1844-1850]. Craig, F. W. S. (ed.). The Parliaments of England (2nd ed.). Chichester: Parliamentary Research Services. p. 107. ISBN 0-900178-13-2.
  3. [3]
    Great Britain Committee on Slavery (1833), "Select Committee on the Extinction of Slavery Throughout the British Dominions, Report", J. Haddon.
  4. [4]
    Burke, John (1832). "A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire", page 111. H. Colburn and R. Bentley.
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