Author: James, Charles
Biography:
JAMES, Charles (1764-1821: ancestry.com)
A “revolutionary sympathizer; a political jobber; a ‘fixer,’ and a spy” (Reiter), Charles James was born in 1764, the eldest son of a wine merchant, John James of Bruge. In 1775-77 he was educated at Jesuit Colleges at Bruges and Liege. When in 1780 and 1786, respectively, he entered Gray’s and Lincoln’s Inn, he registered under his maternal uncle’s surname, “Simpson,” possibly to obscure his Catholic origins. A prolific writer, his publications include Petrarch to Laura (1786), Poems (1789), and Suicide Rejected (1791). His presence in Paris during the early phase of the French Revolution led to his publication of An Extenuation of the Conduct of the French Revolutionists (1792). His Regimental Companion (1800) and Military Dictionary (1802) were influential. In 1795 the Earl of Moira appointed him Deputy Muster-Master General on the expedition of French royalists to Quiberon, and, in 1801, as his secretary. Moira influenced his commission as major of the corps of Royal Artillery Drivers; his residence in London as “French Secretary;” his concurrent appointment as major of Horse in the Artillery service; his Field Officer’s allowance; and, in Jan 1809, and for the following two and a half years, his leave of absence with pay. Following the exposure of these unusual arrangements, James was called before a military tribunal. Subsequently, he resigned his commissions. As Moira’s factotum, he arranged loans for the earl and shielded him from creditors. In 1801, Moira introduced him to Jane Austen’s brother Henry. Subsequently, James and Austen secretly partnered to broker army commissions and to manage the earl’s heavy debts. His relationship with Moira soured over complications arising from those debts. On 22 Oct. 1818 at St Marylebone, he married Judith Appleton, with whom he had four sons and two daughters. He died in London, age 63, on 14 Apr. 1821 and was buried at St Mary’s, Paddington Green. Seven weeks after his death, his widow remarried. Her second husband’s daughter, Elizabeth Ashley, later married James’s son Charles. (ancestry.com 11 Sept. 2023; PROB 11/1647; Devon Record Office, Sidmouth MSS, 152M; J. Foster, Register of Admissions to Gray’s Inn, 1521–1889 [1889], 390; C. Caplan, “Jane Austen’s Banker Brother: Henry Thomas Austen of Austen & Co., 1801-1816,” Persuasions [1998], 69–90; S. Bennett, “Lord Moira and the Austens,” Persuasions [2013], 129–52; J. Reiter, “Charles James,” thelatelord.com 12 Sept. 2023) JC