Author: James, Isaac
Biography:
JAMES, Isaac (1759-1828: ancestry.co.uk)
He was born on 12 July 1759 at Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and registered at Tilehouse Street, Particular Baptist church (commonly known as Salem Chapel), one of at least nine children of Rev. Samuel James (1716-73), and Mary Needham (1714-79), who had married in 1744. His father had been appointed minister at Tilehouse Street in 1743 and his Abstract of the Gracious Dealings of God (1760) went through many editions with the ninth edition (1824) including a memoir written by Isaac James. His mother was the daughter of the Rev. John Needham (1685-1743), the previous incumbent of Tilehouse Street. He was educated for the ministry at Bristol Baptist college but later doubted his calling and went to London to study medicine. He also abandoned medicine and returned to Hitchin where he opened an academy. On the death of his uncle, the Rev. John Needham of Bristol, in 1787, he was left property and returned to the Baptist college where he worked as a classical tutor for thirty years, alongside the Divinity tutor, Dr. John Ryland (q.v.). He also became a bookseller and tea-dealer. He married Jane Hall (1754-1834), daughter of the Rev. Robert Hall of Arnsby, Leicestershire, on 20 Apr. 1789 at St. James’s, Bristol. There was no issue. They worshipped at Broadmead Baptist church for almost forty years. He died at 8 Dighton Street, Bristol, on 28 Dec. 1828 and was buried on 5 Jan. 1829 at the Baptist burial ground, Redcross Street, Bristol. He left an array of manuscripts which his nephew, the Rev. Samuel James Burder listed in his 1834 obituary notice. These included topographical works on Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Bristol, and various counties in England and Wales, and histories of Baptist and Dissenting congregations. In addition to the work listed here, he published an account of Alexander Selkirk’s adventures (cf. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe) as Providence Displayed (1800) and An Essay on the Sign of the Prophet Jonah (1802). (ancestry.co.uk 28 Oct. 2023; Bristol Mirror 3 Jan. 1829; Bath Chronicle 27 Mar. 1834; The Christian’s Penny Magazine 11 Oct. 1834, 326-8) AA