James Whittall was a 19th-century

tai-pan A tai-pan (,Andrew J. Moody, "Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English", ''American Speech'', Vol. 71, No. 4 (Winter, 1996), pp. 414-415. literally "top class"汉英词典 — ''A Chinese-English Dictionary' ...

of Jardine Matheson & Co. and member of the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Ko ...

. Whittall was appointed an unofficial member in Legislative Council in 1864. After John Dent resigned in 1867, he became the Senior Unofficial Member. He went on leave later that year, and

William Keswick William Keswick (15 April 1834 – 9 March 1912) was a British Conservative politician and businessman, patriarch of the Keswick family, an influential shipping family in Hong Kong associated with Jardine Matheson Holdings. Biography Keswick ...

held the seat for him until 1872. Whittall remained an unofficial member in the Legislative Council until he resigned in 1875, and Keswick replaced him again. Whittall was heavily involved with Jardine Matheson & Co.; the silk trade company in Japan during a time with strong foreign trade restriction.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whittall, James Jardine Matheson Group Members of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong Hong Kong people of British descent British businesspeople