Stephen, James

Title

Professor

First name(s)

James

Surname

Stephen

Position(s) held at King's College London

• Professor of English Law, 1852-65
• Emeritus Professor of English Law, 1865-94

Education & professional details

School, college and/or university attended

Rugby School (1830s); Cambridge, Caius and Queens (1839-43); Lincoln’s Inn (1843-46) when called to the bar); Middle Temple.

Qualifications

Hon. LL.D Edinburgh (1856)

Position(s) held (non King's College London)

• Recorder of Poole;
• Revising Barrister on the Western Circuit (1861-4);
• Registrar of the Court of Bankruptcy, Leeds (1864-70);
• Judge of the County Court at Lincoln (1871-94).

Publications

• Edited his father, H.J.Stephen’s, New Commentaries on the Laws of England (vols. 2—8; 1848-1880); his son, Henry St.James Stephen, helped with editions after 1880;
• Author of The Common Law: Procedure Act 1860, with notes and Introduction (1860);
• Questions for law Students with Notes on the 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th and 6^th editions of Stephen’s New Commentaries (1853-69).  

Personal details

Date of birth

16 September 1820

Place of birth

London

Date of death

25 November 1894

Place of death

Lincoln

Obituary

Law Times, 1 December 1894, p.12.

Family details

Son of Henry John Stephen, Serjeant at Law; married (1850) Caroline Neville Davies, daughter of Henry Davies, Professor of Gynaecology at St George’s Hospital, London; 7 surviving children; eldest son Henry St James Stephen, was a legal writer, barrister and solicitor; two sons were solicitors in Lincoln; two sons were medical practitioners and in the RAMC (1914-18)

Notes

The Stephen family included many lawyers, gifted writers of legal treatises, who from the outset supported the abolition of slavery. Like some members of the family James Stephen, avoided publicity; though a good lawyer he did not send his sons to University and his descendants received little note by comparison with their famous cousins.