James Darcy Lever 1703-1742

Sir James Darcy LEVER 1703-1742

Biographical Note

Son of John Lever of Salford, a member of a prosperous Lancashire family, and Frances Foley. Matriculated at Brasenose College, Oxford 1723; awarded the DCL degree, 1733. Married Dorothy Assheton. High sheriff of Lancashire 1736, knighted 1737. He commissioned the Italian architect James Leoni to rebuild Alkrington Hall, to new Palladian designs.

Books

Lever had a printed book label ('His Book...1720') (Lee 310), and an engraved armorial bookplate (Franks 18199-200), made before he was knighted. The extent of his library is not known; his eldest son and heir Sir Ashton Lever went on to develop an extensive museum of natural history specimens.

Sources

• Foster, J., Alumni Oxonienses, Oxford, 1891.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.
• Kell, P. E. "Lever, Sir Ashton (1729–1788), natural history collector." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
• Lee, B. N. Early printed book labels. Pinner, 1979.
• Smith, W. J. 'Sir Ashton Lever of Alkrington and his museum', Transactions of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society, 72 (1962), 61-92.
• Alkrington Hall, Middleton Heritage.