MEDLYCOTT, James (c.1658-1731), of Ven House, nr. Milborne Port, Som.

Descended from an ancient Somerset family, James Medlycott was a successful lawyer, who in 1706 became a master in Chancery, an extremely lucrative office which he eventually sold for £3,000.Luttrell, vi. 74; Howell, State Trials, xvi. 1154. About the same time he also purchased the manor of Ven,Phelips, Som. i. 291. carrying a major interest at Milborne Port, which he represented as a Whig in three Parliaments. Under George I he followed Walpole into opposition, voting against the repeal of the Occasional Conformity and Schism Acts and against the peerage bill in 1719. Retiring from Parliament in 1722, he seems to have run into financial trouble, probably due to his expenditure on Milborne Port, combined with the cost of building Ven House, which was completed about 1730. His name appears in the bankruptcy list of April 1731,Gent. Mag. 1731, p. 177. just before his death on 2 May the same year.