(1715 – 1760) was an Irishman with a claim to the title Earl of Anglesey. He is perhaps best known today for partially inspiring the novel Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Annesley is said to have been born on April 15, 1715, in Dunmaine, New Ross, County Wexford, to Arthur Annesley 5th Baron Altham (1689–14 Nov 1727) and his wife Mary Sheffield, the illegitimate daughter of the Duke of Buckingham.
He was initially rejected by his father and left destitute on the streets of Dublin. Then, at about the age of 12 in 1728, soon after the death of his father, Annesley was kidnapped and shipped to an American plantation in Delaware, where he was sold into indentured servitude, apparently on the orders of his uncle Richard Annesley. By removing James from the line of succession, Richard was able to claim the title of the 6th Earl of Anglesey.
However after 12 years working in slave labour and two failed escape attempts, James finally escaped and travelled to Jamaica, where he signed on as an able seaman in H.M.S. Falmouth, serving throughout the campaign against Cartagena.
He was recognised during his time on board and subsequently discharged in October 1741.
He then returned to Ireland and laid claim to his supposed birthright. There followed a protracted legal battle between James and Richard, during which Richard tried on a number of occasions to have James murdered.
Richard’s legal defense was that James was not the legitimate son of Mary Sheffield, but actually the illegitimate son of Joan Landy, whom James claimed was merely his wet nurse. The verdict in the Irish Courts was in James’ favour, and his estates were returned to him.
There then followed a long costly legal battle in the English Courts where his uncle used his knowledge of the system and wealth to delay a verdict on the matter.
James never took up his titles before he died of a disease at age 44. His uncle Richard died about a year later.
The Annesley case attracted enormous interest in New Ross, Dublin and London. Abridged trial reports appeared in daily newspapers and periodicals, such as the Gentleman’s Magazine, and fifteen separate accounts of the trial were printed.
Fictionalized accounts also circulated in literature at the time, in Eliza Haywood’s novel Memoirs of an Unfortunate Young Nobleman (1743) and Tobias Smollett’s novel Peregrine Pickle (1751), and in the 19th century by Sir Walter Scott in Guy Mannering (1815) and Charles Reade in The Wandering Heir (1872).
