James Carlile McCoan

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James Carlile McCoan

MP
Member of Parliament
for Wicklow
In office
10 April 1880 – 24 November 1885
Preceded byWilliam Richard O'Byrne
William Wentworth FitzWilliam Dick
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born14 July 1829
Dunlow, Tyrone, Ireland
Died13 January 1904(1904-01-13) (aged 74)
Kensington, London
Resting placeKensal Green, London
NationalityIrish
Political partyLiberal (from 1885)
Other political
affiliations		Independent (1881–1885)
Home Rule (until 1881)
Spouse(s)
Augusta Janet Jenkyns
​
​
(m. 1857)​
ParentsClement McCoan
Sarah Carlile
Alma materLondon University

James Carlile McCoan (14 July 1829 – 13 January 1904)[1] was an Irish Home Rule League, Liberal and independent politician, author and journalist.[2]

Early education and career[]

McCoan was educated at The Royal School in Dungannon in the south-east of County Tyrone in Ulster and at Homerton College, then located in Hackney and at the time affiliated with the University of London, before graduating from London University in 1848.[2]

He then entered Middle Temple in at age 22 in 1851, before being called to the bar in 1856, where he joined the south-eastern circuit. He did not however seek practice in England, instead pursuing a journalism career and being appointed war correspondent at Charles Dickens' The Daily News during the Crimean War.[2]

Towards the end of the war, McCoan travelled in Georgia and Circassia, before settling in Constantinople where he worked in the supreme consular court until 1864, and founded the first English newspaper in Turkey, The Levant Herald, which was for some time subsidised by the UK government. However, in 1870, he disposed of the paper and returned to England, where he began writing history publications.[2]

Political career[]

McCoan was elected MP for Wicklow as a Protestant Home Ruler in 1880. He was renowned for attacking the government's 'coercive' legislation, and being among the Home Rulers suspended for defying the Speaker of the House of Commons' authority in 1881.[2][3]

After this, he rebuked illegal activity and methods of the Home Rule League and supported William Ewart Gladstone's land bill, although he also tried to amend it. In doing so, he was renounced by the Home Rule League and then sat as an independent MP from 1881.[2]

When the seat was split in 1885, McCoan sought re-election as a liberal candidate in Lancaster, for Southampton in 1886, and for Macclesfield in 1892.[2][4]

Family[]

McCoan was the only son of Clement McCoan of Charlemont, a village in the north-west of County Armagh in Ulster, and Sarah Carlile, daughter of James Carlile of Culresoch. In 1857, he married Augusta Janet Jenkyns, daughter of William Jenkyns of Elgin, and together they had one son and one daughter.[2]

Works[]

McCoan's works included:[2]

  • Protestant endurance under Popish Cruelty: A narrative of the Reformation of Spain (1853)
  • Consular Jurisdiction in Turkey and Egypt (1873)
  • Egypt as it is (1877)
  • Our New Protectorate: Turkey in Asia, its Geography, Races, Resources and Government, with Map showing existing and projected Public Works (1879)
  • Egypt under Ismail: A Romance of History (1889)

References[]

  1. ^ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "W" (part 3)
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Norgate, Gerald le Grys (1912). "McCoan, James Carlile" . Dictionary of National Biography (2nd supplement). London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ^ Walker, B.M., ed. (1978). Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922. Dublin: Royal Irish Academy. ISBN 0901714127.
  4. ^ Craig, F. W. S., ed. (1974). British Parliamentary Election Results: 1885-1918. London: Macmillan Press. ISBN 9781349022984.

External links[]

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Richard O'Byrne
William Wentworth FitzWilliam Dick 		Member of Parliament for Wicklow
1880 – 1885
With: William Joseph Corbet 		Constituency abolished
Retrieved from ""