James West was a politician and antiquary. West collected books, manuscripts, pictures, prints, plate, coins, and medals, but lost many items, valued at almost £3000, through a fire in his chambers at the Inner Temple on 4 January 1737. Undaunted, he subsequently gathered around him a marvellous library and curiosities of all kinds at his town house, situated at the west end of the piazza in King Street, Covent Garden...[and] His country seat was at Alscott, Preston-on-Stour, Gloucestershire' {1}.
Bibliography
W. P. Courtney, ‘West, James (1703–1772)’, rev. Patrick Woodland, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, 2004) [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/29085, accessed 26 Aug 2007]