Sir James Matheson, MP
(1796-1878)
26 April 1861

Volume 3, page 155, sitting number 3311.

Sir James Matheson appears in the Post Office Directory of 1862, living at Stornoway House, 13 Cleveland Row, London, on the eastern edge of Green Park. According to the same source, Sir James Matheson, Bart. was a Fellow of the Royal Society, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, and the Member of Parliament for Ross and Cromarty.

Born at Lairg in Sutherland, Matheson co-founded, with Dr William Jardine, the Jardine Matheson company in Canton in 1832 and made a fortune from the Chinese opium trade. He later returned to Scotland and, in 1844, purchased the Island of Lewis for £190,000. He commissioned the renowned architect Charles Wilson to design him a castle residence there. Building work started in 1847; the £60,000 project took seven years to complete. A further £49,000 was spent landscaping the grounds of the castle. He was created the Baronet of Lewis in 1851 for his generosity in alleviating the sufferings of the inhabitants of the island during a period of famine.

He died, aged 82, at Menton in the south of France on 31 December 1878. A short report appeared in the Glasgow Herald a few days later (2 January 1879): 'The death is announced of Sir James Matheson, Bart., of Achany and [the] Lews, aged 82 years. The deceased was much respected in the North as a kind and generous landlord. He received a baronetcy in acknowledgment of his great exertions for the starving population of the Island of Lewis during the famine of 1847. Sir James sat in Parliament from 1843 to 1868. He was an F.R.S., and Lord-Lieutenant of Ross-shire. His death occurred at Mentone, where he had gone to spend the winter.'

On his death, the baronety became extinct. His estate passed to his widow, Lady Mary Jane Matheson, and then in 1896 to his nephew, Donald Matheson.