Edward James (barrister)

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Edward James MP QC (1807–3 November 1867) was an English barrister and Liberal politician. He was born in Manchester, the second son of merchant Frederick William James and Elizabeth Baldwin. After two years working in a Manchester warehouse, he studied at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, then Brasenose College, where he earned a BA in 1831 and an MA in 1834. He was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1835 and joined the Northern Circuit, becoming its leader in 1860. He practiced in Liverpool and served as assessor of the Court of Passage there from 1852 until his death. In 1853 he became a Queen's Counsel, soon after became a bencher, and in 1863 he was appointed attorney-general and queen's serjeant of the County Palatine of Lancaster, by then living in London.

In 1865, after a tough contest among four Liberal candidates, he was elected Member of Parliament for Manchester, a seat he held until his death in 1867. He spoke on legal matters and on reform of representation. James was known as a practical lawyer with strong knowledge of commercial law, especially shipping. He was sharp in court and good at cross-examination, though quick to take offence and sometimes argued with judges.

He died of typhoid fever while returning from a holiday in Switzerland, at the Hôtel du Louvre in Paris, on 3 November 1867 and was buried at Highgate Cemetery on 9 November. He married Mary Crossfield in 1835. He also wrote a pamphlet titled Has Dr. Wiseman Violated the Law? (1851), which ran to a second edition.