James West (antiquary)

James West

James West PRS (2 May 1703 – 2 July 1772) was a British politician and antiquary, who served as President of the Royal Society between 1768 and 1772.

Life

He was the only son of Richard West of Priors Marston, Warwickshire and St. Swithin’s, London and educated at Balliol College, Oxford (1719). He then entered the Inner Temple to study law and was called to the bar in 1728 and made a bencher in 1761.[1]

He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1727, and acted as the society's treasurer from 1736 to 1768. He served as President of the Royal Society from 1768 until his death in 1772.[2]

He was elected as MP for St Albans at the 1741 general election. In 1768 he became the member for Boroughbridge, Yorkshire which he served until 1772. West served twice as junior Secretary to the Treasury and twice as senior Secretary to the Treasury. [1]

Family

Alscot Park, Preston-on-Stour

He married Sarah, the daughter of Sir Thomas Steavens, a wealthy timber merchant of Eltham, Kent. They lived in the Piazza in Covent Garden and bought Alscot Park, then in Gloucestershire but now in Warwickshire, as a country retreat to which he could retire. He replaced the old house with the present one built in a Rococo Gothic style and moved in c.1762.

James West the younger, the only son of West and Sarah Steavens, died in 1795, predeceasing his mother. Alscot Park thereby passed to James West the younger's son, James Robert West (died 1838).

References

  1. 1 2 "WEST, James (1703-72), of Alscott Park, Glos". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  2. ↑ "Fellow Details". Royal Society. Retrieved 22 February 2018.
  •  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "West, James". Dictionary of National Biography. 60. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by
Sir Thomas Aston, 4th Baronet
Thomas Ashby		 Member of Parliament for St Albans
1741–1768
With: Thomas Ashby 1741–1743
Hans Stanley 1743–1747
Sir Peter Thompson 1747–1754
Viscount Grimston 1754–1761
Earl Harcourt 1761–1768		 Succeeded by
Sir Richard Sutton, 1st Baronet
John Radcliffe
Preceded by
Sir Cecil Bisshopp, 6th Baronet
James West the younger		 Member of Parliament for Boroughbridge
with Nathaniel Cholmley
1768–1772		 Succeeded by
Nathaniel Cholmley
Henry Clinton
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