James Motley was a Yorkshireman closely associated with South Wales and Borneo.
Background
Born in Leeds and educated in York and Street John"s College, Cambridge he spent at least some of his youth in South Wales where his father, a woolstapler, had investments in iron, coal, and tin works, being an early partner in the Maesteg Ironworks, Yskyn Colliery at Briton Ferry, Margam tinworks, and the Dafen tinworks at Llanelli.
Career
He worked as an engineer and manager (at Tewgoed (or "Terrgoed") Colliery at Cwmavon). Then underground surveyor to William Chambers of Llanelli. And finally, at Abercrave colliery, iron works, iron mines, and limestone quarries while maintaining an active interest in natural history, especially botany (he left a herbarium at the Royal Institution of South Wales, Swansea), and folklore.
After the family hit substantial financial problems, he went out to Labuan in 1849 to pioneer coal mining and other enterprises for the Eastern Archipelago Company.
He did not have a good relationship with the other naturalist in Labuan at the time, Hugh Low, but he corresponded with some eminent geologists (including Sir Henry De la Beche who had recommended him for the job in Labuan) and botanists, especially William Jackson Hooker at Kew Gardens, and William Mitten. In Swansea, Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn arranged publication of a natural history book
He sent specimens to various places (unpaid except for some sold, and later misattributed, to his successor in Labuan, Edmund Scott Barber). Had he lived longer it is arguable that he might have been comparable to his near contemporary in both South Wales and Borneo, Alfred Russel Wallace.
They both contributed to Lewis Weston Dillwyn"s natural history book presented to participants in the 1848 British Association Conference in Swansea and Wallace actually acquired some specimens of Borneon birds collected by Motley, as recorded by British Museum catalogues of the late 19th century.
Many other birds he collected are in the Tristram Collection at the World Museum, Liverpool. His name provides the basis for the generic name Motleyia and the specific name of a number of Malesian plants, the first two being named by Heinrich Wilhelm Schott in 1858.