Queer Places:
Eton College, Windsor, Windsor and Maidenhead SL4 6DW, UK
University of Cambridge, 4 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RZ
Kensal Green Cemetery, Harrow Rd, London NW10 5JU, UK

James Fitzjames Stephen.jpgSir James Fitzjames Stephen, 1st Baronet, KCSI (3 March 1829 – 11 March 1894) was an English lawyer, judge, writer, and philosopher. One of the most famous critics of John Stuart Mill, Stephen achieved prominence as a philosopher, law reformer, and writer.

James Fitzjames Stephen was born on 3 March 1829 at Kensington Gore, London, the third child and second son of Sir James Stephen and Jane Catherine Venn. Stephen came from a distinguished family. His father, the drafter of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833, was Permanent Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies and Regius Professor of Modern History at Cambridge. His grand-father James Stephen and uncle George Stephen were both leading anti-slavery campaigners. His younger brother was the author and critic Sir Leslie Stephen, whilst his younger sister Caroline Stephen was a philanthropist and a writer on Quakerism. Through his brother Leslie Stephen, he was the uncle of Virginia Woolf. He was also a cousin of the jurist A.V. Dicey. Stephen was first educated at the Reverend Benjamin Guest's school in Brighton from the age of seven, before spending three years at Eton College from 1842. Strongly disliking Eton, Stephen completed his pre-university education by attending King's College, London for two years. In October 1847 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge.[1] Although an outstanding intellect, he took an undistinguished BA in Classics in 1851, being, in his own words, one of the "most unteachable of human beings". He was, however, well-known as a strong debater at the Cambridge Union. He was also elected to the exclusive Cambridge Apostles, his proposer being Henry Maine, the newly-appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law, who became a lifelong friend despite their differing temperaments. At Apostles meetings, he frequently sparred with William Harcourt, later leader of the Liberal Party, in debates described by contemporaries as "veritable battles of the gods". Another Apostles contemporary was the physicist James Clerk Maxwell. Being conscious of the slightness of his legal education, he then read for an LL.B. from the University of London.[2] This was an unusual step for its day, and it was there that he first seriously engaged with the works of Jeremy Bentham.

Stephen married Mary Richenda Cunningham, daughter of John William Cunningham,[17] on 19 September 1855. They had three sons and at least four daughters surviving to adulthood, but only one grandchild: Katharine Stephen, librarian and Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge; Sir Herbert Stephen, 2nd Baronet (1857–1932), barrister and clerk of assize, who succeeded him in the baronetcy; James Kenneth Stephen, poet and tutor to Prince Albert Victor, who predeceased his father; Sir Harry Lushington Stephen, 3rd Baronet (1860–1945), Judge of the High Court of Calcutta, 1901–1914,[3] who succeeded his eldest brother as the 3rd baronet; Helen Stephen; Rosamond Emily Stephen, lay missionary in the Church of Ireland in Belfast and advocate of ecumenism; Dorothea Jane Stephen, teacher of religion in India.


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  1. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/09/obituaries/james-f-jacobs-dancer-and-designer-42.html