James Losh

James Losh (1763–1833) was an English lawyer, reformer and Unitarian in Newcastle upon Tyne. In politics, he was a significant contact in the North East for the national Whig leadership.William Wordsworth the poet called Losh in a letter of 1821 "my candid and enlightened friend".

He was the second son of John Losh of Woodside, Wreay in Cumberland, born on 10 July 1763; John Losh (1756–1814), his elder brother, was father of Sara Losh, while William Losh was a younger brother. His mother was Catherine née Liddell, and Joseph Liddell the industrialist and banker was his uncle.

With his brother John, Losh had instruction from the local curate, William Gaskin, and then went to the academy of John Dawson. He was trained up for university at school in Penrith, and matriculated in 1782 at Trinity College, Cambridge.John Tweddell was a close friend from college, as was John Bell the barrister. Another friend from this time was Charles Warren.

Losh graduated B.A. in 1786, and M.A. in 1789. He was admitted to Lincoln's Inn in 1789, and was called to the bar. His family's choice of career for him had been the church, rather than the law. But at Cambridge Losh had become a Unitarian, a change of view that has been attributed to William Frend.

In 1791 Losh made himself conspicuous by publishing an edition of Areopagitica by John Milton. He held republican views and joined a club in Carlisle for the like-minded. Even if inconclusively, he was the subject, with his brother John and others, of an arrest warrant for disturbing the peace. In the second part of 1792, he went to revolutionary Paris. In an uncomfortable visit, he attended the National Convention, and saw Danton speak. But he felt under threat, conceived a dislike for Robespierre and the disorder, and returned to England after the September Massacres.

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