In his memoirs Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, recalled Marlborough as ‘a man of wonderful parts in all kinds of learning, which he took more delight in than his title’.
Marlborough’s lifelong involvement in this region was initially prompted by a long-running dispute resulting from an arrangement made by his grandfather, also named James Ley†, earl of Marlborough, with James Hay†, earl of Carlisle, over rights to govern the ‘Caribbee’ (i.e. Leeward) Islands. Marlborough’s efforts to establish English predominance on the Leeward island of Santa Cruz during 1645–6 ended in bloody failure at the hands of the Spanish and it may have been his inability to sustain the consequent personal financial loss that forced him to sell off the Teffont Evias estate in 1652.
Like so many of his fellow adventurers, Marlborough saw the Restoration as providing rich opportunity for new initiatives in the Caribbean. Towards the end of 1660 he was one of many who submitted proposals for the improvement and settlement of Jamaica, which had been seized from the Spanish by Cromwellian forces five years earlier. To hasten the process of settlement under English rule he advocated the intercession of the Royal Africa Company ‘to make Jamaica the staple for the supply of blacks’, and was willing that religious toleration be granted ‘to all who desire it’. Whether Marlborough’s Jamaica proposals preceded, and therefore helped to promote, his appointment on 1 Dec. to the new council for foreign plantations is unclear, but the combination of his aristocratic status and first-hand experience of colonial management qualified him ideally for membership of this body.
A call of the House on 31 July 1660 revealed that Marlborough was absent by ‘leave of the king’, although further details of the business on which he was engaged are unknown. His decision to take his seat in the House on 20 Nov. 1660 may have been prompted by his interest in the bill (later aborted) for the annexation of Dunkirk and Jamaica to the crown. The bill had been scheduled to be debated that day but was not considered until the following day. Marlborough was then present for just over 37 per cent of the remaining days of the Convention.
Marlborough’s last attendance during the 1661–2 session of the Cavalier Parliament was on 6 Mar. 1662. His attendance before that date was somewhat sporadic, amounting to some 24 per cent of sitting days. In March 1662 he sailed for the East Indies as commodore of a small squadron on what proved to be an abortive mission to take possession of Bombay (Mumbai), ceded by the king of Portugal as part of Catherine of Braganza’s marriage dowry.
Marlborough was also determined to use his alliances to pursue his dispute over the Caribbee Islands. Apart from Clarendon, who held him in high esteem, he may also have been able to count on the assistance of two particular friends, Sir George Carteret‡ and Sir Hugh Pollard‡, both of whom were senior officials of the court. The privy council arrived at a final settlement of the several claims arising from the original grant of the Caribbee Islands to Carlisle in June 1663. It was ordered that £500 a year be paid to Marlborough out of the Islands’ revenues for the duration of his life and after him to his uncle and heir, William Ley, later 4th earl of Marlborough.
In September 1663 there were rumours of Marlborough’s imminent appointment as governor of Jamaica but in February 1664 the king’s choice fell instead on Sir Thomas Modyford, who, unlike Marlborough, had long experience of the institutions of government in the plantation islands.
Early in 1665, at the commencement of Anglo-Dutch hostilities, Marlborough was brought onto the council of war, and took his place alongside the nine flag officers by virtue of his position as ‘captain of a ship by commission’.