James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown

James Stopford, 2nd Earl of Courtown KP, PC (Ire) (28 May 1731 – 30 March 1810), known as Viscount Stopford from 1762 to 1770, was an Anglo-Irish peer and Tory politician who sat in the British House of Commons between 1774 and 1793.

Courtown was the eldest son of James Stopford, 1st Earl of Courtown, and his wife Elizabeth (née Smith), and was educated at Trinity College Dublin.[1]

He was elected to the Irish House of Commons for Taghmon in 1761, a seat he held until 1768, and later sat as a Member of the British House of Commons for Great Bedwyn in 1774 and for Marlborough from 1780 to 1793. Between 1784 and 1793 he served as Treasurer of the Household under William Pitt the Younger. Courtown was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick in 1783 and admitted to the Irish Privy Council in 1784. In 1796 he was further honoured when he was created Baron Saltersford, of Saltersford in the County of Chester, in the Peerage of Great Britain.[1]

A portrait of his sons; Robert, Edward and James. (Samuel Shelley, 1774)

Lord Courtown married Mary, daughter of Richard Powys, in 1762. They had four sons, who all gained distinction, and a daughter.[1] Their second son the Hon. Sir Edward Stopford (1766–1837) was a Lieutenant-General in the Army. Their third son the Hon. Sir Robert Stopford (1768–1874) was an Admiral of the Red. Their fourth son Reverend the Hon. Richard Bruce Stopford (1774–1844) was Canon of Windsor and Chaplain to Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Lady Courtown died in January 1810. Lord Courtown only survived her by three months and died in March 1810, aged 78. He was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son James, who also became a prominent Tory politician.