eldest children were born, William on October 27, 1756, and
James on June 30, 1758. Unfortunately the firm became bankrupt; and the
bankruptcy led to a lifelong quarrel between James Stephen and his elder
brother, William, who had taken some share in the business. James then
managed to start in business in London, and for some time was fairly
prosperous. Unluckily, while at Poole he had made a great impression
upon Sir John Webbe, a Roman Catholic baronet, who had large estates in
the neighbourhood. Sir John had taken up a grand scheme for developing
his property at Hamworthy, close to Poole. Stephen, it seems, had
discovered that there were not only brick earth and pipeclay but mineral
springs and coal under the barren soil. A town was to be built; a trade
started with London; Sir John's timber was to be turned into ships; a
colliery was to be opened--and, in short, a second Bristol was to arise
in Dorsetshire. Sir John was to supply the funds, and Stephen's energy
and ability marked him out as the heaven-sent manager. Stephen accepted
the proposals, gave up his London business, and set to work with energy.
Coal was found, it is said, 'though of too sulphureous a kind for use;'
but deeper diggings would, no doubt, lay bare a superior seam. After a
year or two, however, affairs began to look black; Sir John Webbe became
cool and then fell out with his manager; and the result was that, about
1769, James Stephen found himself confined for debt in the King's Bench
prison.[2]

Stephen, however, was not a man to submit without knowing the reason
why. He rubbed up his old legal knowledge, looked into the law-books,
and discovered that imprisonment for debt was contrary to Magna Charta.
This doctrine soon made converts in the King's Bench. Three of his
fellow prisoners enjoy such immortality as is conferred by admission to
biographical dictionaries. The best known was the crazy poet,
Christopher Smart, famous for having leased himself for ninety-nine
years to a bookseller, and for the fine 'Song of David,' which Browning
made the text of one of his later poems.[3] Another was William Jackson,
an Irish clergyman, afterwards known as a journalist on the popular
side, who was convicted of high treason at Dublin in 1795, and poisoned
himself in the dock.[4] A third was William Thompson, known as
'Blarney,' a painter, who had married a rich wife in 1767, but had
apparently spent her money by this time.[5] Mrs. Stephen condescended t