{{Short description|English landowner and administrator}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}} {{Use British English|date=May 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = James Eversfield | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | caption = | order1 = High Sheriff of Sussex | term_start1 = 1822 | term_end1 = 1822 | birth_date = 1795 | birth_place = Catsfield, Sussex, England | death_date = 29 September 1826 | death_place = | resting_place = St Mary's Church, Horsham, Sussex, England | education = Peterhouse, Cambridge }}
'''James Eversfield''' was an English landowner who served as High Sheriff of Sussex.
== Life == Baptised on 1 November 1795 in the church of St Laurence in Catsfield, he was the younger son of William Markwick, who later changed his name to Eversfield, and his wife Mary.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=2016-09-29 | at=Item 3; FHL microfilm 1,067,146 | url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NDZM-95Y | title=James Markwick | date=1795-11-01 | series=England Births and Christenings, 1538–1975 | location=Catsfield, Sussex, England | url-access=registration | website=familysearch.org}}</ref> On 15 June 1815 in the church of St James, Piccadilly he married Mary Crew (1795–1872), daughter of Robert Hawgood Crew, Secretary to the Board of Ordnance, and his wife Mary Sophia Foreman, daughter of John Foreman.<ref>{{cite web | access-date=2016-09-29 | at=FHL microfilm 1,042,319 | url=https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NKND-QX2 | title=James Eversfield and Mary Crew | date=1815-06-15 | series=England Marriages 1538–1973 | location=Saint James, Westminster, London, England | url-access=registration | website=familysearch.org}}</ref> In 1818 his elder brother died, making him heir to the family's extensive landholdings,<ref>{{cite book|last=Berry|first=William|title=County Genealogies: Pedigrees of the Families in the County of Hampshire|url=https://hdl.handle.net/2027/njp.32101007240102?urlappend=%3Bseq=173|year=2007|publisher=Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper|page=155|hdl = 2027/njp.32101007240102}}</ref> which included the manor and mansion of Catsfield as well as lands in Pevensey, Ninfield, Mountfield, Battle and Bexhill.
He served as High Sheriff of Sussex in 1822. Following the death of his mother in 1823, he sold the Catsfield property and moved to Denne Park outside Horsham. In 1825 he was one of the six proprietors of the Baybridge Canal at West Grinstead. Aged only 30 when he died, his will was proved on 13 Nov 1826.<ref>{{cite web | title=Appointment of new trustees (of the will of James Eversfield) | website=The National Archives | date=1849-12-28 | url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/e8f9e280-834c-46af-85ab-3e4603df32f7 | access-date=2019-10-03}}</ref>
He and Mary had three children:<ref>{{cite book|last1=Burke|first1=John|last2=Burke|first2=Bernard|title=A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lF1tAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA194-IA2|year=1844|publisher=J. R. Smith|page=194}}</ref> *Ann Isabella Mary Eversfield (1816–1904), who in 1837 married Charles Goodwin Bethune (1810–1864),<ref>{{cite web|title = England, Sussex, Parish Registers, 1538-1910| website=FamilySearch |url = https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q2QW-5BBV|access-date = 28 May 2023}}</ref> who later changed his last name to Eversfield. They had sixteen children, including the cricketer Henry Beauclerk Bethune. *Sophia Eversfield (1819–1901), who in 1845 married Henry Paget, 3rd Marquess of Anglesey, but had no children. *Charles Gilbert Eversfield (1822–1886), who in 1848 married Isabella Pigott (1820–1902).<ref>{{cite web|title = England Marriages, 1538–1973| website=FamilySearch |url = https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NJWG-78K|access-date = 28 May 2023}}</ref> Having no children, they adopted Lucy Barbara Vaughan (1837-1905), his mother's stepdaughter by her third marriage, and she in 1871 married Edward Maximilian Bethune (1842-1912),<ref>{{cite web|title = England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005| website=FamilySearch |url = https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2DL3-TFP|access-date = 28 May 2023}}</ref> the eldest surviving son of her adoptive father's elder sister.
His widow Mary in 1827 married Henry Tredcroft (1788-1844), becoming the mother of Edward Tredcroft, and, widowed a second time, in 1847 married the Reverend John James Vaughan (1809-1881), son of Sir John Vaughan.
== References == {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eversfield, James}} Category:1795 births Category:1826 deaths Category:19th-century English landowners Category:High sheriffs of Sussex Category:People from Catsfield Category:19th-century English businesspeople