Background
Born 23 January 1786 at Rugby, he was the eldest son of Thomas James, head-master of Rugby School, by his second wife. After the death of his father, 23 September 1804, he was nominated dean"s student by Cyril Jackson.
Born 23 January 1786 at Rugby, he was the eldest son of Thomas James, head-master of Rugby School, by his second wife. After the death of his father, 23 September 1804, he was nominated dean"s student by Cyril Jackson.
He was educated at Rugby until he was twelve years old, when, through the influence of the Earl of Dartmouth, he was placed on the foundation of Charterhouse School. He graduated Bachelor of Arts 9 March 1808, and Master of Arts
He was bishop of Calcutta from 1827 to 1828. He also wrote travel and art books He left Charterhouse in May 1804, and entered Christ Church, Oxford, as a commoner.
24 October 1810, and continued to reside at Oxford, first as a private tutor and afterwards as student and tutor of Christ Church, till 1813, when he went abroad.
During his James visited the courts of Berlin, Stockholm, and Saint St. Petersburg. He visited Moscow, which had just then been burned, and went through Poland to Vienna.
In 1816 James visited Italy, and studied painting at Rome and Naples. On his return to England he took holy orders, and resigned his studentship on being presented by the dean and chapter of Christ Church to the vicarage of Flitton-cum-Silsoe in Bedfordshire.
James"s appointment to the bishopric of Calcutta, in succession to Reginald Heber, came at the end of 1826, and he resigned his vicarage in April 1827.
The University of Oxford gave him the degree of Doctor of Divinity by diploma on 10 May, and on Whitsunday, 3 June, he was consecrated at Lambeth. He landed at Calcutta 18 January 1828, and was installed in Calcutta Cathedral on the following Sunday, the 20th. Foreign purposes of organisation James divided the city of Calcutta into three parochial districts, the fort itself constituting a fourth.
On 20 June 1828 he set out on a visitation to the western provinces of his diocese, but, taken ill, he returned to Calcutta and was advised to take a sea voyage.
He sailed for China on 9 August, but died during the voyage on 22 August. In 1823 James married Marianne Jane, fourth daughter of Frederick Reeves, of East Sheen, Surrey, and formerly of Mangalore, in the Bombay presidency.