MILNES, James (1755-1805), of Thornes House, nr. Wakefield, Yorks.

Milnes, heir to a wealthy Wakefield woollen merchant, was not interested in trade. On the death of his father, a religious dissenter and a prominent local supporter of Pitt, he soon showed contrary political tendencies too: Michael Angelo Taylor informed William Adam, 9 Oct. 1794, ‘By the way, Mr James Milnes who bought Egremont House will purchase and vote with us, and he desired to speak about it.’J. W. Walker, Wakefield, 463-6; Wentworth Woodhouse mun. F34/160, 183; Blair Adam mss. At the general election of 1796, evidently at the instigation of Lord Lauderdale, Milnes was lured into a contest for Shaftesbury, in company with William Dawson, whose family had been business associates of his. Told that the outlay would probably be £4,000, he paid most of the estimated cost of failure (£17,000).Egerton 2137, ff. 149-150; see SHAFTESBURY. In 1802 he purchased a quiet seat on the Kenrick interest.

Milnes was an inconspicuous Member. He joined Brooks’s Club, sponsored by Fox, on 17 May 1803 and a week later voted with the Whigs on the failure of negotiations to prevent the resumption of war with France. He appeared in some lists of the minority for Pitt’s naval motion, 15 Mar. 1804. Pitt’s calculators listed him ‘Prince’ in September. He died 21 Apr. 1805. Wilberforce described him in 1795 as ‘good natured and well intentioned’ and an obituary commended his ‘urbanity of manners and inflexible integrity in public and private life’.Life of Wilberforce (1838), ii.107; Gent. Mag. (1805), i. 489.