James Silk Buckingham; Wm. and Mary Qrtly., Vol. 1, No. 2

Transcribed by Kathy Merrill for the USGenWeb Archives Special Collections Project

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James Silk Buckingham

   Edward W. James

   William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Papers, Vol. 1, No. 2.
   (Oct., 1892) pp. 121-122.

                     JAMES SILK BUCKINGHAM.

                      BY EDWARD W. JAMES.

   James Silk Buckingham, an English traveller and lecturer, was born in
Flushing, near Falmouth, England, in 1786; died in  London, June 30th, 1855.
He was intended for the church, but being of an adverturous turn of mind he
became a sailor, book seller's clerk, law student, printer and captain of a
West India man.  He was employed in 1813 by the Pacha of Egypt to select a
route for a canal across the isthmus of Suez, but after being robbed, the
Pacha relinquished his design and Buckingham went to India and commanded a 
ship in the service of the Sultan of Muscat.  After this he went through many
adventures.  He published at various times his "Travels in Palestine", "Travels
in Arabia", "Travels in Mesopotamia", and "Travels in Assyria and Medea", and
two volumes on Belgium, the Rhine, and Switzerland, and two on France, Piedmont
and Switzerland.

   He lectured through Great Britain in the support of various reforms, and
represented Sheffield in Parliament from 1832 to 1837, and subsequently
travelled in America as slavery and temperance lecturer.

   Sketches of his life appear in Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography,
and in The Dictionary of National Biography, but in neither is it mentioned
that he ever became a

Page 122.

citizen of the United States as he did, unless the James Silk Buckingham
mentioned below was another person and that there was a most remarkable
coincindence of names:

   "Norfolk Borough;
   At a quarterly Session held the twenty-sixth day of march, One thousand
eight-hundred and ten.
                 Present, Miles King, Mayor
                          John Nivison, Recorder.
                          William Vaughan.

   It appearing to the Satisfaction of the Court that James Silk Buckingham,
a native of England, has resided within the jurisdiction of the Unites States
for Eight years, and for one year within this State, and he making oath that
he will support the Constitution of the United States and absolutely and en-
tirely renounce and abjure all allegiance to any foreign prince, potentate,
or Sovereignty whatever, particularly the King of Great Britain.  And it more-
over appearing to the Satisfaction of the Court that the said James Silk
Buckingham has demeaned himself as a Man of good Moral character attached to
the Constitution of the United States and well disposed towards the good order
and happiness of the same: he is thereupon admitted the rights and privileges
of a citizen.