BOURNE, James (1812-1882), of 33 Onslow Square, London, Mdx. and Heathfield House, Wavertree, Liverpool, Lancs.

Bourne was the product of an ‘old and respected Liverpool family’ which had long been associated with the commerce and public life of the city, having been successful in the timber and iron trades, salt and coal mining, canals and railways. He was one of nine children of an ‘eminent’ merchant and colliery proprietor, who was also an active magistrate and alderman of the city.1Standard, 15 June 1841; Liverpool Mercury, 15 Mar. 1882; N. Watts, ‘Bourne of Hackinsall’: www.fitzwalter.com. Bourne’s father, maternal grandfather, and uncle, Sir George Drinkwater, served as mayors of Liverpool in 1825, 1810 and 1829 respectively.

A ‘staunch Conservative’, Bourne had unsuccessfully contested Wexford borough in 1841 as a protectionist and anti-repealer.2Liverpool Mercury, 15 Mar. 1882; Morning Post, 5 June 1841. Shortly afterwards he married the daughter of a successful Liverpool merchant and became connected with the firm of Bourne and Robinson, which owned collieries at Sherdley and Peasley Cross, St. Helens, Lancashire.3Osbourne’s Guide to the Grand Junction Railway (1838), 294; Worrall’s Directory of Warrington, Wigan, St. Helens (1876), 80. In 1846 he inherited properties at Hackinsall and Heathfield from his father and later became a director of the London and North-Western Railway.4Liverpool Mercury, 5 Apr. 1865.

An active militia officer, Bourne was one of the originators of the volunteer movement in Lancashire, his corps being regarded as ‘one of the finest militia regiments in the kingdom’.5I.F.H. Beckett, The Amateur Military Tradition, 1558-1945 (1992), 173; Liverpool Mercury, 15 Mar. 1882. His father had been an officer in the Liverpool volunteer regiment raised in 1803: The Times, 15 Mar. 1882. He exercised considerable political influence in his locality, and ‘by his purse and counsel assisted his party in the winning of many hard-fought contests’ in west Lancashire. He was returned without opposition for Evesham following the sudden death of the sitting Conservative member in April 1865, and sat for the seat until his retirement in 1880.6Standard, 5 Apr. 1865.

Bourne entered the Commons pledged to oppose Edward Baines’s borough franchise bill, which, by lowering the franchise to £6, would ‘be a downward step towards democracy’.7Birmingham Daily Post, 12 July 1865. Having approved of Lord Derby’s reform bill of 1859, he questioned the Liberal government’s sincerity on this issue, dismissing its bill as ‘nothing more than an electioneering dodge’ and voting against its second reading in April 1866. During the committee stage of the Conservatives’ reform bill in April and May 1867, he opposed the enfranchisement of women and compound ratepayers, and voted against a reduction of the copyhold franchise. Having become a convert to free trade, he supported the repeal of the malt tax. He defended the right of the established church to levy rates, but argued that ‘their imposition did more harm than benefit to it’, and in 1868 opposed Gladstone’s resolutions on the Irish Church.8Liverpool Mercury, 5 Apr. 1865. He is not known to have served on any select committees or introduced any bills. He did, however, successfully defend his borough against disenfranchisement during the debate on the Scottish reform bill in June 1868.9Hansard, 8 June 1868, vol. 192, cc. 1245-6.

Bourne was re-elected for Evesham in 1868 after which he continued to take a parliamentary interest in the volunteer movement.10Hansard, 22 July 1870, vol. 203, cc. 786-8. Hansard 1803-2005 has misidentified Bourne as parliamentary under-secretary for foreign affairs in 1877, having confused him with Robert Bourke. Having been a loyal supporter of the Conservatives, he was created a baronet by Lord Beaconsfield’s government in May 1880 and retired at the general election.11The Times, 13 May 1880.

Having been in delicate health for some time, he died suddenly at his home in March 1882, and was buried in the family vault at Holy Trinity church, Wavertree. Although he was ‘a devoted churchman’, and regarded as a ‘Tory of the old school’, he was committed to ‘the fullest liberty of conscience’, and was said to have had ‘many friends among the Liberals’. He was well-regarded for his ‘sterling commercial honour, his extensive, although unostentatious charity, and his valuable but not paraded public services’.12Liverpool Mercury, 5 Apr. 1865, 15 Mar. 1882. He was succeeded by his only son, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir James Dyson Bourne (1842-83), who had married Lady Marion Loftus, only daughter of the 3^rd marquis of Ely, in 1875.13Liverpool Mercury, 15, 20 Mar. 1882; Standard, 17 Mar. 1882; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 18 Mar. 1882; The Times, 13 Nov. 1883.