Stephen , James , 1758-1832 , lawyer and slavery abolitionist

James Stephen was born in Poole, Dorset, and received a patchy education at various schools before studying law in Aberdeen and London. During 1783-1794 he worked as a lawyer in St Kitts in the West Indies, and on his permanent return to London he practised in the prize appeal court of the Privy Council. From 1811 until his death he was Master in Chancery, and he served as MP for Tralee, County Kerry, from 1808 to 1812 and for East Grinstead, Sussex, from 1812 to 1815. Stephen was deeply religious in the evangelical Christian tradition and (having witnessed its injustices first hand in the Caribbean) a staunch opponent of slavery and a vehement campaigner against it.