| James Colton | |
| Birth Date: | 12 May 1860 |
| Birth Place: | Govan, Scotland |
| Death Place: | Glanamman, Wales |
| Occupation: | Activist, coal miner |
| Known For: | Marriage of convenience with Emma Goldman |
James Colton (12 May 1860 – 5 August 1936) was a Scottish anarchist, trade unionist and coal miner, who spent most of his life in Wales. He was known for arranging a marriage of convenience with the anarchist activist and writer Emma Goldman in 1925, so that she could obtain British citizenship.
Colton was born in Govan, Scotland, on 12 May 1860,[1] the son of Arthur Colton, a stonemason. As a child, he moved to Penarth in Wales. He first worked as a baker in Upper Boat, then later moved to Glanamman in the Amman Valley, where he became a miner at the Gelliceidrim Colliery.[2] Colton was self-educated and this led to him identifying with libertarian thought.[3] He first met Emma Goldman when she was giving a speaking tour in Edinburgh in 1895.[4]
Shortly after the death of Colton's first wife and knowing that Goldman needed British citizenship, after she had been deported from the United States in 1919, he proposed a marriage of convenience. They married on 27 June 1925, Goldman's 58th birthday,[5] when he was aged 65. The couple were not friends and did not intend to live together.[6] Despite this, they occasionally maintained contact via letters. The marriage was reported in The New York Times the following year.[7]
After the death of Goldman's lifelong lover and friend Alexander Berkman, Colton, who was sick himself, wrote Goldman a letter expressing his sympathies.
Colton died of cancer on 5 August 1936. he was buried in the Tabernacle cemetery at Glanamman.[8] Goldman's last letter to Colton did not reach him before his death.