James Sadleir (c. 1815 – 4 June 1881) was a member (MP) of the British House of Commons, chiefly notable for being one of the few members expelled by that body. Sadleir was the son of Clement William Sadleir, a farmer, of Shrone Hill, County Tipperary. His mother was the daughter of James Scully, a local banker. His brother John, with whom he was involved in the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank, was MP for Carlow from 1847.
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Entry to politics
James Sadleir was approached to stand as a Whig candidate for the Tipperary constituency in the 1852 election and initially refused, but was eventually induced to accept; he was formally nominated by the incumbent, Nicholas Maher, and was elected easily.
He supported the idea of religious equality in Ireland, although without much enthusiasm for the Roman Catholic priests in his county who passed a vote of censure in April 1853. His brother served in Lord Aberdeen's government as a Junior Lord of the Treasury from December 1852 to January 1854 when he resigned, having been implicated in an attempt to imprison a depositor of the Tipperary Joint Stock Bank who had refused to vote for him.