WIGLEY, James (1700-65), of Scraptoft Hall, nr. Leicester

Wigley came of a family settled in Leicestershire since the 16th century. He sat for Leicester on the corporation interest; under George II he regularly voted with the Opposition and was classed as a Tory.

On 16 Aug. 1762 Henry Fox, trying to win supporters for Bute, told Shelburne that he had heard Wigley was against Bute.Lansdowne mss. Wigley does not appear in Fox’s list of Members favourable to the peace preliminaries, yet he did not vote against them. He seems to have supported Grenville’s Administration: he is included in none of the minority lists 1763-4, and on the division on general warrants, 18 Feb. 1764, was classed by Jenkinson as an absent friend. He died 13 June 1765, aged 64.