James Annesley

James Annesley (1715–5 Jan 1760) was an Irishman with a claim to the title Earl of Anglesey, one of the wealthiest estates in Ireland. The dispute between Annesley and his uncle Richard Annesley was infamous in its time, but his story is perhaps best known today as a possible inspiration for the 19th century novel Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, among other works of literature.

Annesley is said to have been born on April 15, 1715, in Dunmaine, County Wexford, to Arthur Annesley 5th Baron Altham (1689–14 Nov 1727) and his wife Mary Sheffield {1692-Oct 1729}, a daughter of John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby. After the family moved to Dublin, Mary was thrown out of the house and James, rejected by his father, was left to run in the streets. Then, at about the age of 12 in 1728, soon after the death of his father, Annesley was kidnapped and shipped to a plantation in Delaware, where he was sold into indentured servitude, on the orders of his uncle, Richard Annesley. By removing James from the line of succession Richard was able to claim the title and lands of the earldom of Anglesey.

In 1740, after about 12 years working as an indentured servant, James escaped from the plantation (his third attempt) and made his way overland to Philadelphia where he took passage on a merchant ship to Port Royal Jamaica. There on August 11, 1740 records indicate he signed on with the Royal Navy under the command of Admiral Vernon as a Midshipman on HMS Falmouth. Contemporaneous newspaper accounts indicate he was identified by a former "school-mate, at whose father's house he boarded" to be James Annesley. He served throughout the campaign against Cartagena, but saw no action. He was discharged in October 1741.

In 1741, James returned to England, then to Scotland where he accidentally killed a man during a hunting excursion. Richard used that death to try to have James hanged for murder, but was unsuccessful due to last minute testimony that the event was an accident. Richard failed to pay his attorney in that attempted successful prosecution, and that failure would lead to testimony in the following case in which major precedents were set regarding modern attorney/client privilege. Eventually James returned to Ireland where he laid claim to his birthright by mean of the famous case of Annesley v Anglesea, with the help of the Scottish Barrister Daniel Mackercher.

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