Life
1715-1760 [6th Earl of Angelesey]; claimant son of the dissolute Irish
peer Lord Altham whose wife, Mary Sheffield d.1727; prob. illegitimate
son of one Juggy Landy; his father afterwards fell under influence of
a mistress called Gregory; his son left to ramble with butcher called
Purcell; his br. and uncle Richard succeeding to the title; James kidnapped
and indentured as servant in America; escaped and returned to England,
1740; claim supported by Mr. Mackercher, being M- in Smollett’s novel
Peregrine Pickle (of questionable authenticity); action of ejectment against
Richard, 1742; James shoots game-keeper dead and is tried for murder;
acquitted, 1742; back in Ireland, 1743; attacked by Angelesey’s retainers
on race course; trial for ejectment held 16 Sept. 1743, lasting 15 days;
focus on question of his mother; jury found for claimant, though weight
of evidence against his legitimacy; Abstract of the Case of James Annesley,
1751; case appealed; he was twice married; a narrative of his life in
America given in Gentlemen’s Magazine, Vol. XIII; State Trials, XVI, XVII;
Scott’s Guy Mannering Smollett’s Peregrine Pickle, and Reade’s Wandering
Heir. ODNB DIB
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Criticism
Robert Dodsley, Book of J[ames] A[nnesley] ,
calling himself 6th Earl of Anglesey (1743); One-Leg: The Life
and Letters of Henry William Paget, 1st Parquis of Angelesey 1768-1854 (1961).
Narrative accounts of Annesley’s life in America are to be found in Abstract of the Case of James Annesley (1751); Gentlemen’s Magazine, Vol. XIII. State Trials, Vols. XVI, XVII.; Scott, Guy Mannering; Smollett, Peregrine Pickle; Reade, Wandering Heir.
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