and 1814,’ 4to (1 vol.) Subsequent editions, in 2 vols. 8vo, appeared in 1817 and 1819.
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. While there he published two works on art—‘The Italian Schools of Painting,’ in 1820, and ‘The Flemish, Dutch, and German Schools of Painting,’ in 1822—and a theological work entitled ‘The Semi-Sceptic, or the Common Sense of Religion considered,’ in 1825. His intention was to have completed his writings on art by treatises on the English, French, and Spanish schools. In 1826 he began the publication of a series of ‘Views in Russia, Sweden, Poland, and Germany.’ These were engraved on stone by himself, and coloured so as to represent originals. Five numbers appeared during 1826 and 1827, when the publication was interrupted by his appointment to the bishopric of Calcutta, in succession to Heber, at the end of 1826. James resigned his vicarage in April 1827. The university of Oxford gave him the degree of D.D. by diploma on 10 May, and on Whitsunday, 3 June, he was consecrated at Lambeth. He landed at Calcutta 18 Jan. 1828, and was installed in the cathedral on the following Sunday, the 20th.
For 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, being seized with illness, he returned to Calcutta and was ordered to take a sea voyage. He sailed for China on 9 Aug., but died during the voyage on 22 Aug. A ‘Charge’ by him was published in 1829. In 1823 James married Marianne Jane, fourth daughter of Frederick Reeves, esq., of East Sheen, Surrey, and formerly of Mangalore, in the Bombay presidency.
[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Brief Memoir by E. James; Kaye's Christianity in India.]
JAMES, RICHARD (1592–1638), scholar, born at Newport in the Isle of Wight in 1592, was third son of Andrew James of that town, by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Philip Poore of Durrington, Wiltshire. Thomas James [q. v.], Bodley's first librarian, was his uncle. Richard was educated at Newport grammar school, and matriculated as a commoner at Exeter College, Oxford, on 6 May 1608. On 23 Sept. of the same year he migrated to Corpus Christi College, of which he had been elected scholar, and graduated thence B.A. 12 Oct. 1611 and M.A. 24 Jan. 1614-15 (Reg. Univ. Oxon. II. ii. 300, iii. 305, Oxford Hist. Soc.) On 30 Sept. 1615 he was elected probationary fellow of his college, and on 7 July 1624 graduated B.D. After taking holy orders James set out on a long series of travels, which, commencing in Wales and Scotland, extended to Shetland and Greenland, and eventually to Russia. To the last-named country, where he spent some time, he went in 1618 as chaplain to Sir Dudley Digges [q. v.], but unfortunately his own record of his journey is lost, and we know little, except that a rumour was spread that he was dead, and that in November and December 1618 he was at Breslau. James had returned to Oxford possibly by 1620, certainly before 28 Jan. 1623, when Thomas James wrote to Archbishop Ussher that his nephew was engaged on a life of Thomas Becket. In the latter part of 1624 Richard James was employed with Selden in the examination of the Earl of Arundel's marbles, and when Selden published his 'Marmora Arundeliana' in 1628 he acknowledged in his preface the assistance which he had received from James, 'multijugae doctrinae studiique indefatigabilis vir.' Previously to this James had been introduced to Sir Robert Bruce Cotton [q. v.]; he soon became Cotton's librarian, and the lists of contents prefixed to many manuscripts in the Cottonian collection are in James's handwriting. Sir Simonds D'Ewes says that 'James, being a needy sharking companion, and very expensive … let out or lent most precious manuscripts for money to any that would be his customers.' James seems to be cleared from the dishonourable part of the accusation by the continued friendship between him and members of his patron's family. There is, however, no doubt that in July 1629 he lent to Oliver St. John the manuscript tract on the bridling of parliaments which was written in 1612 by Sir Robert Dudley, titular duke of Northumberland [q. v.] The tract was secretly circulated by St. John among the parliamentary leaders; the wrath of the king and his ministers was roused, and James, with Cotton and others, was imprisoned by order of the privy council in the autumn of 1629 [see under Cotton, Sir Robert Bruce]. James petitioned for his release (Cal. State Papers, 1629-1631, p. 110), and was probably set free, with the other defendants, on the birth of the Prince of Wales, 29 May 1630 (Rushworth, Collections, i. 52-3). On 22 Oct. 1629 James was presented to the sinecure living of Little Mongeham, Kent, the only church preferment which he ever held; for, although on the title-page of 'The Muses Dirge' he describes himself as 'preacher of God's word at Stoke Newing-
