Sir William James, 1st Baronet

Commodore Sir William James, 1st Baronet (5 September 1722 – 16 December 1783) was a Bombay Marine officer and politician who represented West Looe in the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1774 to 1783. Born in Pembrokeshire, Wales to a family of unclear background, James went to sea at a young age and worked onboard merchant ships which traded between Britain's Southern Colonies and West Indies, during which he was captured by the Spanish during the War of the Austrian Succession. James eventually returned to England at some point in the early 1740s and possibly married either the landlady of a pub in Wapping, London or a widow named Elizabeth Birch; historical records are not fully clear if James actually married during this period.

In 1747, James joined the Bombay Marine, the navy of the East India Company (EIC). He served as first mate onboard the East Indiamen Hardwicke and Suffolk for two years before being promoted to captain in 1749. Leading a small Bombay Marine squadron, he patrolled the Malabar Coast for two years, defeating a Maratha Navy fleet under Tulajee Angre off Tellicherry in 1749. Promoted to commodore in 1751, he led an expedition against Angre's fleet in 1755, capturing his fortress at Severndroog on 2 April after an extensive offshore naval bombardment. In concert with a Royal Navy squadron, James also participated in the capture of Vijaydurg Fort from Angre in February 1756. He left the Bombay Marine in 1759 and returned to Great Britain a wealthy man.

James settled down in Eltham, Kent after arriving back in England and married a woman named Anne Goddard. In 1768, he was elected as a director of the East India Company. A prominent supporter of the Grafton ministry, James unsuccessfully ran for election in a 1770 parliamentary by-election for New Shoreham. In the 1774 general election, he was elected to represent West Looe, and over the next several years later James was repeatedly chosen to serve as the chairman and deputy chairman of the EIC. James died at his townhouse at Gerrard Street in 1783 of a stroke. His son Edward succeeded his baronetcy but died unmarried in 1792, while James' daughter Elizabeth married a British Army officer, Thomas Parkyns, and went on to have nine children.