Sir James Chatterton (c. 1750 – 9 April 1806), 1st Baronet, was an Irish lawyer and politician; he was the first of the Chatterton Baronets of Castle Mahon.
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Life
He was the eldest son of Abraham Chatterton (d. 1776), of Cork City, and his wife Martha Roche, daughter of Edmund Roche of Trabolgan. The Chatterton family had settled in Ireland during the reign of Elizabeth I. Thomas Chatterton, the founder of the Irish branch of the family, was granted an estate at Ardee in County Louth in 1573; the family later acquired lands in County Cork.
Chatterton entered the Middle Temple in 1770 and was called to the Bar in 1774. He sat in the Irish House of Commons, first for Baltimore in 1781, and then for Doneraile from 1783 to 1797. He was created a baronet in 1801, presumably as a reward for supporting the Act of Union 1800. He was appointed Third Irish Serjeant in 1791 and Second Serjeant in 1793; he held the latter office until his death. He was also Keeper of the State Papers in Ireland: this office was apparently a sinecure.
Family
In 1790 he married Rebecca Lane (d. 17 February 1838), daughter of Abraham Lane of Cork. Their first son, William Abraham (5 August 1794 – 1855), married on 3 August 1824, Henrietta-Georgiana, only child of the Reverend Lascelles Iremongor, Prebendary of Winchester, and died without issue in 1855. His widow subsequently married Edward-Heneage Dering of the Coldstream Guards on 1 June 1859.
On William's death, his brother James succeeded to the baronetcy.
The three daughters of the marriage were: