Background
He was born in Isleworth, Middlesex on 28 June 1726, a younger son of the Honourable George Talbot and Mary FitzWilliam.
He was born in Isleworth, Middlesex on 28 June 1726, a younger son of the Honourable George Talbot and Mary FitzWilliam.
James was educated at the English College, Douai, to which he was a great benefactor.
He was ordained to the priesthood on 19 December 1750. At the age of thirty-three, he was appointed the Coadjutor bishop to Doctor Richard Challoner, on 10 March 1759. On the same day, Talbot was appointed Titular Bishop of Birtha, and consecrated to the Episcopate by Bishop Challoner on 24 August 1759.
During his episcopate he was twice brought to trial, on the information lodged by the well-known informer William Payne, in 1769 and 1771 respectively.
On the death of Bishop Challoner in 1781, Talbot became Vicar Apostolic of the London District, which he ruled for nine years. He lived a retired life in Hammersmith, his charitable nature gaining for him the title of "the Good Bishop Talbot".
His chief work during these years was the completion of the purchase of the property at Old Hall, Hertfordshire, where he had a preparatory academy which afterwards developed into Street Edmund"s College. The penal laws against Roman Catholic schools still existed, and Talbot was again threatened with imprisonment.
But he contrived to evade punishment.
During the last years of his life the Catholic Committee was already threatening trouble. In order to control it, Bishop Talbot allowed himself to be elected a member. But it was soon evident that the laymen were beyond the control of the hierarchy.
The crisis however had not yet arrived when in 1790 Talbot died at his house at Hammersmith.