Author: Willyams, James Brydges
Biography:
WILLYAMS, James Brydges (1771-1820: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 30 Nov. 1771 at Carnanton and baptised on 4 Jan. 1772, the son of James Willyams, banker, of Truro, and his wife Ann Champion, who had married in Bristol in 1770. He went to school in Bideford, Devon, and proceeded to St. John’s College, Cambridge (matric. 1789, BA 1794). He then joined the Royal Cornish Militia, rising to the rank of Lt.-Colonel. He also later became Magistrate and Deputy Lieutenant of Cornwall. He married Sarah Mendes da Costa, the daughter of Abraham Mendes da Costa, on 28 Dec. 1794, at St. Mary’s, Islington. There was no issue. She inherited considerable wealth from her family and at her death in 1863 she left an estate of under £40,000, £30,000 of which went to Benjamin Disraeli (ODNB). In addition to The Influence of Genius (1816) with its clear debts to James Beattie and Thomas Love Peacock (qq.v.), Richard Polwhele (q.v.) records that he left an unfinished manuscript, King Arthur. He died on 13 Nov. 1820, aged 48, and was buried a week later in Truro. His sisters, Charlotte Champion Pascoe and Jane Louisa Willyams, were authors of a novel, Coquetry (1818) which Walter Scott (q.v.) helped them publish. (ancestry.co.uk 11 Aug. 2021; findmypast.co.uk 11 Aug 2021; "Willyams, Sarah Brydges" ODNB 11 Aug. 2021; Exeter Flying Post 23 Nov. 1820; GM Nov. 1820, 477; Richard Polwhele, Biographical Sketches in Cornwall [1831] 3: 82-93; Bibliotheca Cornubiensis 2: 893; Spenserians) AA