James Vernon

James Vernon (1646–1727) was an English politician and Secretary of State for both the Northern and the Southern Departments during the reign of William III.

Origins and education

Vernon was a younger son of Francis Vernon of London (a scion of the Vernons of Haslington, Cheshire, and Hanbury, Staffordshire), by his wife, Anne Welby, widow daughter of George Smithes, a London goldsmith. Like his elder brother Francis, he was an alumnus of Charterhouse and Oxford, where he matriculated from Christ Church on 19 July 1662, graduated B.A. in 1666, and proceeded M.A. in 1669. In 1676 he was incorporated at St John's College, Cambridge, which university he represented in the parliament of 1678-9.

Rise to prominence