Family and Education

b. aft. 1673, 3rd s. of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, by Lady Mary Butler, da. of James, 1st Duke of Ormonde. m. Anne, da. of Elihu Yale, gov. of Fort St. George, 1s. 1da.

Offices Held

Auditor of foreign revenues [I] 1742-d.

Biography

Returned for Derby on the Cavendish interest, Lord James Cavendish voted for the septennial bill in 1716 and the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts in 1719, when he was absent from the division on the peerage bill. In his only reported speech, 25 May 1721, he recommended allowing Sir John Blunt, one of the South Sea Company directors, £1,000 out of his estate. In the 1727 Parliament he took an independent line, voting against the Government on the Hessians 1730, the army 1732, and the repeal of the Septennial Act 1734, but with them on the civil list 1729, and the excise bill 1733, when he was called a fool by George II for voting against them on the city of London’s petition against the bill.1 Absent from the division on the Spanish convention 1739, he voted for the place bill 1740. In March 1741 he vacated his seat by accepting an office. He died 14 Dec. 1751, leaving the bulk of his fortune to his daughter and her husband, instead of to his son ‘because from his bad economy of the people he had about him, he apprehended it would be doing more service to them than him’.2

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: Romney R. Sedgwick

Notes

• 1. Hervey, Mems. 162.
• 2. Record of codicils to will of Ld. James Cavendish, 20 Dec. 1751, Devonshire mss.