Elgin, James Bruce, 8th earl of Elgin, and twelfth of Kincardine, British statesman, born in London, 20 July 1811. He was educated at Eton and Oxford. He began his public life in 1841, as a member of parliament for Southampton, and before the end of the year succeeded to the title and estates of his father, he was appointed governor of Jamaica in 1842, but found the legislature of that Island determined to disregard the rights of the recently emancipated slaves, and in 1846 was recalled at his own request.
