James Scudamore, 3rd Viscount of Sligo

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On the second viscount's death on 2 June 1697 the title and lands passed to his eldest surviving son, James Scudamore, third Viscount Scudamore (bap. 1684, d. 1716), who was born at Shannon Park, Ireland, and was baptized on 16 July 1684 at Holme Lacy. He was educated at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, from 1695. When his father died James was still a minor, which meant a further diminution of the family's local influence. He spent much of the next six years travelling on the continent, mainly in Italy, accompanied by Theophilus Downes, a nonjuring former fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. After returning to England in 1703 and reconciling himself to the government he married Frances (1684–1729), only daughter of Simon, fourth Baron Digby, on 5 March 1706. Lord Scudamore sustained a bad fall from his horse in 1710 which almost killed him and this was said to have impaired his understanding thereafter, but his handicap prevented neither his re-election as tory MP nor the award of the degree of DCL by Oxford University in 1712. He died aged only thirty-two on 2 December 1716 leaving an only daughter.

Offices Held

Biography Of an ancient Herefordshire family, who had often represented the county and borough of Hereford, Scudamore sat for the county in four Parliaments under Anne. In 1715 he was returned as a Tory for the borough, though in 1710 he had ‘got a fall from his horse in riding hastily to Hereford about some electioneering business, which impaired his understanding, and at length occasioned his death’,1 2 Dec. 1716.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754 Author: A. N. Newman Notes 1. W.R. Williams, Herefs. M.P.s, 59; HMC Portland, iv. 570.