William James (29 March 1791 – 4 May 1861) was an English Radical politician. A Liverpool-born slave-owner, he sat in the House of Commons as a Member of Parliament (MP) for constituencies in Cumberland for twenty years over the three decades from 1820. Early life James was born in Liverpool, to a family enriched by his grandfather William James (1735–1798), a slave trader, plantation owner and slave owner. His father William Evans James was from Liverpool, and his mother Elizabeth was a daughter of Nicholas Ashton, of Woolton Hall, Lancashire. He was baptised at a Paradise Street Unitarian Chapel in Liverpool, but later practised as an Anglican. He was educated at Eton and Jesus College, Cambridge, then Trinity College, Cambridge. When his grandfather died in 1798, the Clifton Hill Plantation at Saint Thomas-in-the-East, Jamaica was placed in a trust which passed to young William in 1817. The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire, but paid compensation to slave-owners for the loss of their property. The £20 million total cost amounted to 40% of the United Kingdom's annual budget. James was awarded £4,713 14 shillings and 9 pennies (equivalent to £ in ). Career At the general election in March 1820, James was persuaded by the lesser tradesmen of Carlisle to stand for the borough of Carlisle. He polled poorly on the first day, and withdrew. However, one of the two winners, John Curwen, was also elected for the county seat of Cumberland, and chose to sit for the county. The resulting by-election in May was a heated two-way contest between James and Sir Philip Musgrave, Bt. Polling lasted for seven days, with troops called after disturbances. At the end, James won with 468 votes to Musgrave's 382. James's expenses totalled £17,000 (equivalent to £ in ), including £8,000 on bribes and treating; the defeated Musgrave had spent £23,000. In Parliament, James made many interventions but no major speeches. He focused on political reform, repeatedly calling for universal suffrage, and he supported protesters imprisoned after the 1819 Peterloo massacre in Manchester. He claimed to support an end to slavery, but did little to promote the cause. James voted consistently with the radicals until 1825, when he began to moderate his stances. The following year with falling returns from his Jamaican estates, James decided not to defend his seat at the 1826 general election. He was nonetheless nominated,