Colonel James Archibald Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie, 1st Baron Wharncliffe, PC (6 October 1776 – 19 December 1845) was a British soldier and politician.

[citation needed] Stuart-Wortley sat as Tory Member of Parliament for the rotten borough of Bossiney in Cornwall between 1802 and 1818,[1] when he was returned for Yorkshire.

He was then raised to the peerage as Baron Wharncliffe, of Wortley in the County of York,[4] a recognition both of his previous parliamentary activity and of his high position among the country gentlemen.

In 1831, as political tempers ran high over the issue of Reform, Wharncliffe succeeded in opening channels of communication between the Government and the Opposition.

He is a spirited, sensible, zealous, honorable, consistent country gentleman; their knowledge of his moderation and integrity induced Ministers to commit themselves to him, and he will thus be in all probability enabled to render an essential service to his country…”[5]He at first opposed the 1832 Reform Bill but, having come to see the undesirability of a popular conflict, separated himself from the Tories (with a number of colleagues, collectively known as "the Waverers") and took an important part in modifying the attitude of the peers and helping to pass the bill, though his attempts at amendment only resulted in his pleasing neither party.