19 Facts About James Matheson

Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS, was a Scottish opium trader and taipan.

James Matheson attended Edinburgh's Royal High School and the University of Edinburgh.

In 1807, James Matheson was entrusted by his uncle with a letter to be delivered to the captain of a soon-to-depart British vessel.

James Matheson forgot to deliver the missive and the vessel sailed without it.

James Matheson took his uncle at his word and went to engage a passage back home.

However, a chance encounter with an old sea captain instead led to James Matheson departing for Canton.

Jardine James Matheson began its transformation from a major commercial agent of the East India Company into the largest British trading hong, or firm, in Asia from its base in Hong Kong.

James Matheson's mission proved unsuccessful and he was rebuked by the then British Foreign Secretary the Duke of Wellington.

James Matheson returned to Asia in 1838 and the following year Jardine left for England to continue lobbying.

The subsequent First Opium War led to the Treaty of Nanking which allowed Jardine James Matheson to expand from Canton to Hong Kong and Mainland China.

James Matheson retired as taipan during the early 1840s and handed over to David Jardine, another nephew of Jardine.

On 29 November 1834, James Matheson became chairman of the newly formed "Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge in China".

In 1844 James Matheson bought the Scottish Isle of Lewis for over half a million pounds and built Lews Castle, near Stornoway, clearing more than 500 families off the land by arranging their emigration to Canada.

James Matheson was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1846.

James Matheson became Member of Parliament for Ashburton from 1843 to 1852 on the death of William Jardine and for Ross and Cromarty from 1852 to 1868.

James Matheson led an active public life into his eighth decade, and for many years served as chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

James Matheson died in 1878 at the age of 82 in Menton, France.

James Matheson had married on 9 November 1843 Mary Jane Perceval the daughter of Michael Henry Perceval, illegitimate son of assassinated British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, Commissioner of the Port of Quebec from 1826 and a member, from Spencer Wood, of the Legislative Council of Lower Canada.

James Matheson's widow erected a memorial to him in the grounds of Lews Castle.