James Brend Batten
James Brend Batten (1830-1897)
1897 Obituary [1]
JAMES BREND BATTEN, the well-known solicitor and parliamentary agent, of Great George Street, Westminster, died OR the 26th August, 1897, at Homburg, at the age of sixty-seven.
Born at Plymouth in 1830, and educated at Millhill School, he was articled to his uncle, Mr. Winterbotham, a solicitor of Cheltenham, and almost immediately on being admitted a solicitor, became associated as manager with the firm of Messrs. Swift and Wagstaff, of Liverpool and Westminster.
He was soon after appointed solicitor to the town of Liverpool, and had the satisfaction of winning in the House of Lords the great rating case of the 'Mersey Board v. Jones,' which brought the whole area of the Liverpool Docks into rating for the relief of the poor. From 1853 Mr. Batten was prominently employed in railway work.
He was also a director of the Plymouth and Dartmoor Railway and of the Sambre and Meuse Railway in Belgium. At the general election of 1892 he unsuccessfully contested Shrewsbury against the present member, Mr. H. D. Greene, etc.
He married the sister of the late Sir Evan Morris of Wrexham, with whom he had been associated in railway work in the district.
Mr. Batten was elected an Associate on the 2nd May, 1865.