Sir James Stephen (3 January 1789 – 14 September 1859)[1] was the British Undersecretary of State for the Colonies from 1836 to 1847.

In 1806 he entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he learnt as little as if he had passed the time "at the Clarendon Hotel in Bond Street."

[2] His father, who was just leaving the bar, transferred some practice to his son, who also began to make a digest of colonial laws.

[1] On 22 December 1814 Stephen married Jane Catherine, who was the daughter of John Venn, rector of Clapham, one of the founders of the Church Missionary Society.

He decided in 1825 to accept the offer of the post of permanent counsel to the Colonial Office and to the Board of Trade, abandoning his private practice.

[1] In 1834 Stephen was appointed assistant undersecretary of state for the colonies, and in 1836 under-secretary, giving up his position in the board of trade.

He gained influence with his superiors, and his colleague, Sir Henry Taylor, said that for many years he "literally ruled the colonial empire."

[1] Stephen had accepted his position partly with a hope of influencing policy on the slavery question.

The health of his youngest son induced him in 1840 to take a house at Brighton for his family, to which he could make only weekly visits.

[1] Stephen had meanwhile become known as a writer by a series of articles in the Edinburgh Review, the first of which (on William Wilberforce) appeared in April 1838.

[1] In June 1849 Stephen was appointed Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge, a chair vacant by the death of William Smyth.