1001 James Picton

Constituency  : Leicester  1884-94

James  replaced  his  fellow  radical  Peter  Taylor  at  Leicester  after  the  latter's  resignation.

James  was  the  son  of  an  architect  from  Liverpool. He  was  educated  in  the  city  and  joined  his  father's  son.  He  then  had  a religious  calling  and  studied  at  Owens  College  and  the  University  of  London. He  started  his  preaching  at  Cheetham  Hill  Congregational  Church  in  Manchester  but  had  to  leave  after  accusations  of  heresy. He  moved  to  a  chapel  in  Leicester  where  he  became  noted  for  preaching  political  sermons  to  the  working  classes. In  1869  he  became  a  pastor  in  Hackney. The  following  year  he  joined  the  Hackney  School  Board.  He  argued  that  it  was  not  necessary  to  use  the  Bible  in  schools.He  published  a  number  of  pamphlets  extolling  his  views. He  left  the  chapel  in  1879  to  concentrate  on  journalism, writing  a  leader  column  in  the  radical  paper,  the  Weekly  Dispatch. He  was  adopted  at  Tower  Hamlets  in  1883  but  the  opportunity  at  Leicester  came  first.

James  was  a  small  man  but  a  skilled  orator  respected  in  the  Commons. He  was  a  friend  of  Gladstone. Despite  sitting  for  Leicester  he  took  up  the  cause  of  the  Crofters  of  Scotland  in  Parliament.

James  resigned  in  1894  and  built  a  retirement  home  in  Wales.

He  died  in  1910  aged  77.