Catalogue description Papers of William James (1771-1837), including many relating to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway

Summary

385 JAM/1 Letters received by William James:

385 JAM/1/1 From Lord Derby, 1 doc., 1822

385 JAM/1/2 From Robert Hall, 1 doc., 1824

385 JAM/1/3 From George E. Hamilton, 1 doc., 1822

385 JAM/1/4 From John Moss (1782-1858) 1 doc., 1825

385 JAM/1/5 From George Stephenson (1781-1848), 7 docs., 1821-1823

385 JAM/1/6 From Robert Stephenson (1803-1859), 5 docs., 1822

385 JAM/1/7 From Robert Stephenson (b.1788), 2 docs., 1824

385 JAM/2 Letters received by Mrs. Elizabeth James:

385 JAM/2/1 From Joseph Sandars (1785-1860), 1 doc., 1839

385 JAM/2/2 From Robert Stephenson (1803-1859), 2 docs., 1838

385 JAM/3 Letters received by Ann James:

385 JAM/3/1 From William James, 1 doc., 1807

385 JAM/3/2 From S. Lucas, 1 doc., 1800

385 JAM/4 Papers (other than correspondence) relating to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 3 docs., 1 leaflet, 1821-1830

385 JAM/5 Genealogical & other papers relating to the James & Bushill families, 8 docs., 18th. century - c.1931

385 JAM/6 Miscellaneous papers, 6 docs., 1816, [1824], 1885, n.d.

385 JAM/7 Family photographs, 10 photographs, 1925, 1926, 1955, 1960, n.d.

The three items forming part of this collection but not purchased by this library are described by Sotheby's Catalogue op. cit. as follows:

p.89 [Lot 350] MS survey probably for projected railway line between Coventry & Nuneaton ..., [c.1820]

(A railway line between Shipston and Nuneaton via Coventry was projected by William James in 1820).

p.86 [Lot 342] William James Observations on the patent for improved rail & tram roads. Granted to W. James ..., 1825.

Printed, 8 pp.

[see 385 JAM/6/2 below]

p.86 [Lot 344] Print on fabric commemorating the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, 15 Sep. 1830.

James, William, 1771-1837, land agent and railway promoter

Acc. 2608

Acc. 2616

With the exception of two documents, these papers were purchased from Sotheby & Co., New Bond Street, London, on 3rd. July 1973. The other two documents (also offered for sale by Sotheby and listed below at 385 JAM/1/1/1 and 4/1) were later purchased from Francis Edwards, Marylebone High Street, London. All these papers (plus three other items not purchased by this library) are described in Sotheby's Catalogue ..., 2, 3 Jul. 1973, pp.83-89 as "The Property of a Lady". Since 1930 (apparently) this library has held typed transcripts of 13 of the documents listed below, mostly of letters from George & Robert Stephenson. These, kept together in one folder, form part of the collection of [General] Railway Material in the outsize folio box Hf 385 RAI. A note at the front of the folder is as follows: "Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Letters discovered September 13th. 1930 at 5, Rochester Road, Coventry. From George & Robert Stephenson etc. to William James etc. Copies from the typed copies lent by Mr. T.H. Bushill, of Messrs. Thos. Bushill & Sons, Limited, Coventry. 1 Nov. 1930". William James' elder daughter by his second marriage, Ann (b.1833) married a Thomas Bushill of Coventry in 1857. Unfortunately, no record can be traced as to how this library acquired these transcripts. It is possible that it may have been as a result of interest aroused by the Liverpool and Manchester Railway centenary celebrations in 1930.

• Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company, 1826-1845
• Stephenson, George, 1781-1848, railway engineer
• Stephenson, Robert, 1803-1859, civil engineer
• James family
• Railway transport

Information on William James can be found in the following works:

Robert E. Carlson The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Project, 1821-1831, 1969, pp.40-61 especially

William James in Dictionary of National Biography, vol.29, 1892, pp.229-230

E.M.S.P. [Ellen Matilda Steward Paine (b.1809) daughter of William James] The Two James' and the Two Stephensons or the Earliest History of the Passenger Transit on Railways, 1861

L.T.C. Rolt George & Robert Stephenson: the railway revolution, 1960, pp.87-101 especially

William James was born in 1771 in Henley in Arden, Warwickshire, the son of William James (d.1807), solicitor, and his wife Mary Lucas. James also trained as a solicitor but by 1797 was acting as a land agent. His business and income prospered and by 1799 he had become interested in various projects such as mining, bridge building, railways, land drainage etc.. In the early years of the 19th. century he became a colliery owner in south Staffordshire (see 385 JAM/6/1 below). His business became so extensive that before 1815 he had moved his offices to London (see 385 JAM/3/1/1 below).

In 1821 James was in Lancashire on business. He noticed that communications in the area were inadequate. In July 1821 he met Joseph Sandars (1785-1860), a Liverpool business man and they agreed upon the desirability of a railway link between Liverpool and Manchester. James offered to make a rough survey to give some idea of the practicability of such a scheme and apparently carried out this survey (see 385 JAM/4/1 below).

In the late summer of 1821 James went to Killingworth Colliery in Northumberland. George Stephenson (1781-1848) was engaged on building a locomotive at the colliery and James was impressed both by Stephenson and his work.

In Liverpool, meanwhile, Joseph Sandars was gathering support for the Liverpool and Manchester railway scheme. Manchester businessmen were also being approached but according to Robert E. Carlson The Liverpool and Manchester Railway Project 1821-1831, 1969, p.47 "...the promotion and organisation of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway Company was predominantly a Liverpool enterprise ...". In the spring of 1822 William James made another preliminary (but more complete) survey for the railway with a team which included his son William H. James, his brother-in-law Paul Padley, George E. Hamilton (see 385 JAM/1/3/1 below) and George Stephenson's son Robert (1803-1859) (see 385 JAM/1/6/1, 1/6/2 below). While making this survey James and his team encountered considerable opposition to the idea of the railway, not only from wealthy landowners such as the Earl of Derby (see 385 JAM/1/1/1 below) but also from their tenants.

In the summer of 1822 the first meeting of the Provisional Committee for the Liverpool and Manchester railway took place under the chairmanship of John Moss (1782-1858) (see 385 JAM/1/4/1 below) and it was agreed that they would not petition Parliament for a bill allowing them to implement the railway scheme until William James had completed his final survey for the railway and provided the sections and plans necessary to support such a petition.

James, however, did not produce the survey or plans. The Provisional Committee made a public announcement in July 1822 to the effect that they were about to petition Parliament for a bill but were unable to do so because James still had not completed his survey.

James had suffered a number of set-backs, among them bad weather and opposition (sometimes violent) from landowners whose property the survey affected. His other business interests often necessitated his lengthy absence from the team carrying out the survey and he was also beginning to suffer ill-health and financial losses. Late in 1822 he was briefly imprisoned as the reult of a lawsuit brought against him over financial matters by his brother-in-law. In 1823 William James was declared bankrupt.

Without the necessary survey and plans no progress could be made on the Liverpool and Manchester railway scheme. James did not produce these, though he appears to have hoped to do so, and in May 1824 he was informed by Joseph Sandars that he had been replaced by George Stephenson who was now engaged to undertake the survey for the railway (see Carlson op. cit. p.59).

James retired to Bodmin in Cornwall in 1823. According to William James in Dictionary of National Biography, vol.29, 1892, p.230 "all his efforts to retrieve his position [after this date] were unsuccessful ...". In 1824 he had obtained a patent for hollow nails for railways but this was "of no practical importance" (see 385 JAM/6/2 below). James died in Bodmin in March 1837.

Although the claim by his daughter (see The Two James's ... below) that William James "was the first great agitator and originator of the system of passenger transit on the railways ..." is partisan, it is probably true that James' part in the development of railways has been underestimated, and his reputation overshadowed by that of George Stephenson. Again with exaggeration, James' daughter accuses George Stephenson of having "taken the credit of so many inventions from a cucumber to a lady's frilled petticoat ..." but according to Rolt (see George and Robert Stephenson ... below) George Stephenson never acknowledged his debt to James nor made any tribute to him and "Like [others] upon whose shoulders Stephenson climbed to fame, William James sank beneath his weight into an obscurity ... as dark as the peat bogs of Chat Moss" (p.99). Robert Stephenson, however, on more than one occasion, described James as the original projector and surveyor of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway.

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