James Silk Buckingham

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James Silk Buckingam, by Henry William Pickersgill

James Silk Buckingham (August 25, 1786 - June 30, 1855), was an English author and traveller.

He was born at Flushing near Falmouth, the son of a farmer, and had a limited education. His youth was spent at sea, and in 1797 he was captured by the French and help as a prisoner of war at Corunna. After years of wandering he settled in India, where he established a periodical, the Calcutta Journal, in 1818. This venture at first proved highly successful, but in 1823 the paper's outspoken criticisms of the East India Company led to the expulsion of Buckingham from India and to the suppression of the paper by John Adam, the acting governor-general in 1823. His case was brought before a select committee of the House of Commons in 1834, and a pension of £500 a year was subsequently awarded him by the East India Company as compensation.

Buckingham continued his journalistic ventures on his return to England, and started the Oriental Herald and Colonial Review (1824-9) and the Athenaeum (1828) which was not a success in his hands, Buckingham selling to John Sterling after a few weeks. In parliament, where he sat as member for Sheffield from 1832-1837, he was a strong advocate of social reform, calling for the end of flogging in the armed services, abolition of the press-gang and the repeal of the Corn Laws. He was a prolific writer. He had travelled in Europe, America and the East, and wrote many useful travel books. In 1851, the value of these and of his other literary works was recognized by the grant of a Civil List pension of £200 a year. At the time of his death in London, Buckingham was at work on his autobiography, two volumes of the intended four being completed and published (1855). This work is important as it mentions in detail the life of the black composer Joseph Antonio Emidy who settled in Truro. His youngest son, Leicester Silk Buckingham, was a playwright.