James was the eldest son of James, 8th Lord Chandos of Sudeley, and Elizabeth who was the eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Henry Barnard from Bridgenorth.
When he was six, his father was sent as to Constantinople to be the British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire at a time when Turks had conquered much of Eastern Europe and had reached the gates of Vienna.
In 1698 James became the MP for Hereford until 1714, and three days after his father passed away on October 19th that year he was made Viscount Wilton and earl of Carnarvon.
In 1696 he married his cousin, Mary Lake when she was twenty-nine via whom he inherited a manor by the name of Canons Park between London and Edgeware.
James climbed the social scale due to the force of his personality, his ability to administrate, and the favourable contacts that he had through the Duke of Marlborough. During the War of Spanish Succession (1702-13), he was paymaster general of the forces abroad. Through this job he became very wealthy. In 1719 he was made the Marquis of Carnaron and the Duke of Chandos. That is why there is a street in Hereford called Chandos Street.
During his job as Pay-master General, James defrauded the army out of £600,000, and invested it in what was known as the 'South Sea Bubble'. However when the bubble burst he lost his investments, as Jonathon Swift remarked, 'what he got from fraud he lost by stocks'.

In 1712 his wife, Jane, died and the following year James married his first-cousin, Casandra Willoughby. Maybe she was the inspiration or not, but around this time he began to recontruct the Jacobean mansion at Cannons Park, only this time in the Georgian Baroque style. Under the direction of Vanburgh and others, he recast the two principal fronts, and built a Palladian-style private chapel. This chapel however was not finished until 1720, so the anthems that Handel had composed were first played in the nearby church of St Lawrence, which was also reconstructed by Chandos, completed by 1715. Of the original medieval edifice, only the tower was left. The same fashionable team of artists, Antonio Belluci, Louis Laguerre, and Francesco Sleter that worked on the Canons also were employed on St Lawrence. The man responsible for the main body of the church was John James. The walls and ceiling are decorated with paintings of Bible scenes, some in bright colours, others in more subdued sepia and grisaille. There is an effective use of optical illusion. Perhaps the showpiece is the vibrant ceiling of the Ducal gallery, after Raphael's Transfiguration, supposedly done by Belluci. The organ case was carved by Grinling Gibbons where Handel would have sat and played.
There is a local legend that Handel was inspired to compose his The Harmonious Blacksmith when he entered a nearby force to shelter from a storm. During its zenith, Cannons was a bit like the sort of princely court quite easily found in Germany or Italy but very rare in England.

James's main claim to fame however was not his job or title but the connnection that he had with George Handel the composer and Alexander Pope the poet. He had constructed for him a sumptious house at Canons which is close to Edgware in Middlesex, and even seriously thought about having a private road laid to join it up with his unfinished house in Cavendish Square. His presence there is why there is a street off the square called Chandos street.

Handel lived at Cannons for more than two years when he was employed by James and it is there that he composed his oratorio Esther. It was for James that Handel wrote the Chandos Anthems. Alexander Pope when wrote his Moral Essays for the Earl of Burlington described Cannons but called it Timons Villa. In his poem he wrote the line "Thus gracious Chandos is belovd at sight".

However Jonathan Swift who wrote Gulliver's travels, referred to James as a great compiler with every court. Hogarth painted a satirical portrait of Alexander mocking the way he was felt to be obsequious to the Duke of Chandos in which he showed Pope covered in mud from the wheels of Chandos' coach.

In 1722 John Macky said in his A Journey Through England 'The disposition of the Avenues, Gardens, Statues, Paintings, and the House of Cannosn suits the Genius and Grandeur of its great Master. The Chapel which is already finished, hath a Choir of Vocal and Instrumental Music, as the Royal Chapel, and when his Grace goes to Church, he is attended by the Swiss Guards, ranged as the Yeomen of the Guards; his Musick also play when he is at Table, he is served by Gentlemen in the best Order; and I must say, that few German Sovereign Princes, live with that Magnificence, Grandeur and Good Order...'

In 1725 Daniel Defoe wrote in his 'Tour through Great Britain' about Canons. He described there as being a hundred and twenty, and that the choir entertained them every day at dinner.

James was also lord-lieutenant for Herefordshire as well as Radnorshire, and in addition was the chancellor of St Andrews University.

For all his riches however he extravagantly overspent and 1731 his Herefordshire estates were sold to Guys Hospital (Thomas Guy was one person who did make money out of the South Sea Bubble) who were landlords of the Dewsall area until Charles Clore bought out the estate. The estate there but not the house is currently owned by the Prudential Assurance company. Also due to James spendthrift nature, Cannons was demolished after he died.

James passed away in 1744 and was succeeded by his son Henry, as 2nd Duke of Chandos.

This is the house in Dewsall where Chandos was from.

The Duke of Chandos was the early patron of John Wood, famous for his work at Bath. During the 1720's, Chandos commissioned him to construct Tyberton Court, which sadly has been demolished. Whilst he was at it, Wood designed the altar in the rare, brick-built Tyberton church.