James Stansfeld

Sir James Stansfeld,

Stansfeld was born at Akeds Road, Halifax, the only son of James Stansfeld Sr (1792–1872) and his wife Emma Ralph (1793–1851), daughter of John Ralph (d.1795), minister of the Northgate-End Unitarian chapel, Halifax and his wife, Dorothy (1754–1824).

Stansfeld's father, James Sr, was the sixth son of David Stansfield (1755–1818) of Hope Hall, Halifax, and his wife Sarah Wolrich (1757–1824), daughter of Thomas Wolrich (1719–91) of Armley House, Leeds. He was a descendant of the Stansfeld family of Stansfield and Sowerby, Yorkshire, and a distant cousin of the politician William Crompton-Stansfield and the soldiers James Rawdon Stansfeld, Thomas Wolryche Stansfeld and John R. E. Stansfeld.^[1]

James Sr was originally a member of a firm of solicitors, Stansfeld & Craven, and subsequently served as a county court judge in the Halifax district; he was the last solicitor on the bench in a century. James Stansfeld Jr's sister, Mary (d.1885), married the Liberal MP George Dixon.

Education

Brought up as a

On 27 July 1844, Stansfeld married Caroline, second daughter of William Henry Ashurst, a radical and friend of Giuseppe Mazzini, to whom Stansfeld was introduced in 1847: they became close. Stansfeld also sympathised with the Chartist movement, even if Feargus O'Connor denounced him. He took an active part in propagating radical opinions in the north of England, frequently spoke at meetings of the Northern Reform Union, and was one of the promoters of the association for the repeal of "taxes on knowledge".^[2]

Political career

In 1859, Stansfeld was returned to Parliament as a

Stansfeld married Caroline, second daughter of William Henry Ashurst, on 27 July 1844. Their son was the barrister-at-law Joseph James Stansfeld (b. 1852). After his wife's death, on 22 June 1887, Stansfeld married his second wife, Frances, widow of Henry Augustus Severn of Sydney.^[2]

Stansfeld died, aged 77, at his residence, Castle Hill, Rotherfield, Sussex, on 17 February 1898, and was buried at Rotherfield on 22 February 1898.^[2]

Ancestry

See also

• William Crompton-Stansfield
• Field House, Sowerby
• Dunninald Castle

References

Attribution:

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Pollard, Albert Frederick (1901). "Stansfeld, James". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography (1st supplement). Vol. 3. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Stansfeld, Sir James". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 25 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 783.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to James Stansfeld.

• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by James Stansfeld
• Portraits of Sir James Stansfeld at the National Portrait Gallery, London
• Ruston, Alan. "Stansfeld, Sir James (1820–98)".
  doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/26288. (Subscription or UK public library membership
  required.)

Parliament of the United Kingdom
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