James Family of Grosmont, Monmouthshire

Grosmont Church Wall Plaque - John James senior

The James family of Grosmont, Monmouthshire, Wales date back to the 17th century (at least). Grosmont is near the Herefordshire border. Solicitors' records (see notes) refer to a Philip James and a William James having lands in Grosmont in 1688 and a Thomas James having tenancy of a house in 1714.

Descendants of Henry James

A mason named Henry James (c.1679-1753) married Ann Cox (c.1679- ;born Rowlstone, Herefordshire) at Grosmont on June 20 1699. Their children included:

1. John James (1700-1772) who was baptised July 17 1700 and died July 13 1772. John had:
   • Micah James (baptised October 6 1727)
   • John James (c.1731-1814)
   • Walter James (baptised August 18 1734-1821)
   • William James (baptised Feb 12 1737- )
   • Anne James (baptised May 10 1741- )
2. Henry James (1702-c.1777) who married Jane Walter (c.1702- ). They had:
   • Henry James (bap. 16 Oct 1743-1809) married Mary Price (1743-1818) in Grosmont on May 1 1767. A Henry James, parish clerk, was buried in Grosmont on 28 January 1809 aged 69. Henry was variously a stone mason, carpenter and tenant farmer at Town Farm. Their children included:
   • William James (1768- ) - son of Harry? and Mary James, baptised 21 February 1768 (born Feb 10 accordng to a family Bible). William married Sarah Higley (c.1782-1817) and had:
     1. Angelina James (1801-1874) who married her cousin Walter James (see below)
     2. Arabella James (1804- )
     3. Henry James (1806- )
     4. Sabina James (1811- )
     5. Edwin James (1815- )
   • Henry James (1771-1787) - born Feb 13 1771 and died July 1787 accordng to a family Bible.
   • Thomas James (1773-1842) - baptised 5 December 1773 (born Nov 21 1773 accordng to a family Bible), died 22 December 1842 according to probate of his will. He married Mary Bevan ( -1811) of Llangattock Lingoed on Jan 28 1803. He is described as a grocer on his first child's baptism and subsequently as a shopkeeper. Widower Thomas James then married Ann James (?) on 29 April 1819. Thomas had:
   1. Walter James (bap. 8 April 1804- ) who married his cousin Angelina James (1801-1874, see photo of chest tomb below). They had:
      • Christiana James (b. Dec 18 1830)
      • George James (born Mar 10 1832)
      • Henry James (b. June 17 1835)
      • John James (b.1838) who married Harriet Kezia Beavan (b.1845 Callow, Herefordshire)
      • Alfred James (b. May 16 1841)
   2. Henry James (bap. 24 Dec 1820 - )
   3. Mary James (c.1818- ) who married Patrick McCormick
   4. William James (bap. 9 Mar 1823 - )
   • Walter James (1775-1854) - baptised 18 November 1775 (born Nov 12 1775 accordng to a family Bible).
   • Mary James (1778- ) - baptised 11 February 1778 (born May 7 1778 accordng to a family Bible). Married Samuel Dyke (c.1781-1860).
   • Anne Abigail James (1780-1783) - baptised 20 May 1780 (born April 24 1780 accordng to a family Bible).
   • George James (1785-1810) - baptised 14 August 1785, when Henry was described as a mason (George born Feb 20 1785 accordng to a family Bible). He married Christiana Higley in 1809. A George James aged 24 was buried 8th February 1810.
   • John James (1788-1869) was baptised in Grosmont on May 26 1788 (born May 2 1788 accordng to a family Bible). John James was married in Grosmont 23 June 1819, otp, batch to Jane Edmonds (1791-1839), Skenfrith, spin witnessed by Wr James and Elizth James with consent. Jane Edmonds had been baptised in Skenfrith in 1792 as daughter of Charles Edmonds (1752-1829) and his wife Sarah Phillips (see Edmonds family in Skenfrith).
   • Ann James (1746-1746) was baptised on 7 November and died on 14 November.
   • William James (1746-1746) was baptised on 7 November and died on 21 November.
   • Elizabeth James (1751-1796) who married John Croft(s) (1749-1794) on 5 June 1772. They had no children, They feature in the chapter entitled 'Honest Servant' in Phillip Morgan's A Grosmont Miscellany (2008), Capella Archives. Initially in her will she left all her estate to her servant Eleanor Jones but later wrote a codicil leaving sums of money to relatives and friends which the honest Eleanor discovered. The relatives mentioned in the codicil were: sister-in-law Mary Morgan and her son James Morgan; aunt Elizabeth Gwin at Roulstone; aunt Mary Powel; and last brother Hennery James 'if he will put his hand to paper that he will wall up the bulk in his work shop that it may be no newsense to the aginieining land any more.'
3. Ann James (baptised 17 April 1708 - )
4. Helen James (baptised 23 Oct 1710 - )
5. William James (baptised 13 May 1713 - )
6. Philip James (baptised 5 May 1715 - )
7. Richard James (baptised 5 Nov 1717 - ) who married Martha Evans on 28 June 1752.

Walter James (parish clerk of Grosmont) and brothers John James (farmer), Thomas James (farmer), and the children of William James (deceased) and sister Mrs Mary Dyke are named as beneficiaries in the will of Elizabeth James (spinster) of Kingsfield who died in 1835. Elizabeth James had inherited the estate of Walter James (d. 1821) whose brother John James had predeceased him. Elizabeth was described as 'our relative residing with us' at Kingsfield in Walter's will. Her dates coincide with a baptism on December 18 1758 for Elizabeth daughter of Richard James. John and Walter were the sons and executors of John James (1700-1772). Elizabeth's death notice in the Hereford Journal of 5 August 1835:

On Monday the 27th ult. died, at Kingsfield, near Grosmont, Monmouthshire, Mrs James in the 70th year of her age; she was universally respected by her numerous friends, and her loss will be long felt by the neighbouring poor, to whom she was always a kind and steady friend.

Grosmont Church James Wall Plaques

Descendants of John James, Town Farm

There is a Grosmont baptism record dated 19 September 1825 for a Jane James (1825- ) daughter of John and Jane James, otp, farmer who married James Price in 1845. Other baptisms for a couple of the same name include:

• Mary James (1820-1837) baptised 26 November 1820
• Ann James (1826- ) baptised 11 June 1826
• Sabina? James baptised 9 March 1828
• Sabina James (1828-1837) baptised 17 August 1828 (transcription error?)
• Sarah James (1830- ) baptised 15 August 1830
• Isabella Abigail James (1833-1864) baptised 18 January 1833
• Louisa Martha James (1834-1841) baptised 11 December 1834

These names and ages correspond with a family listed at Mansion, Grosmont in 1841 without mother Jane (buried 4 February 1839, aged 48), daughters Mary (buried 30 September 1837, aged 16), Sabina (buried 9 December 1837, aged 9) and Louisa (buried 16 January 1841) but including a Walter James with a rounded age of 65, 'Independent' (John's brother). Walter was buried on 10 March 1854, aged 79, opt, Coroner's Order. In his will, his estate was left in trust to John James and subsequently to Sarah and Isabella Abigail. Jane Price received a hundred pounds (after her father's death) for her own - not her husband's - use. Isabella Abigail Nicholas was brought back to Grosmont from Broad St, Hereford for burial 20th October 1864 aged 32 having married Thomas Black Nicholas, draper, on the 7th April. John James was buried on the 20th October 1869, aged 81.

The following notice had appeared in the Hereford Journal of 10 December 1845:

THE TOWN FARM GROSMONT, MONMOUTHSHIRE ---------- LIVE AND DEAD FARMING STOCK IMPLEMENTS IN HUSBANDRY,&c,&c. TO BE SOLD BY AUCTION, BY MR.W.M.MERRICK, On the Premises aforesaid, on Friday the 12th day of December,  1845, the property of Mr.JOHN JAMES, who is retiring from  the Farming Business; CONSISTING OF fifty-six sheep, five superior cows and calves andto calve, two heifers in calf, nine yearling cattle, four draught horses, one 3-year-old cart colt, one year- ling ditto, one weaned ditto, one poney mare, one sow, and six store pigs, one broad-wheel waggon, one harvest ditto, two broad-wheel carts, two pairs of harrows, two ground cars, one roller, four lammas and three sowing ploughs, one three-knife straw cutter, four sets of gearing and about thirty tons of well- tended hay, part of which may go off the premises; several hogsheads and casks in good condition, with sundry other articles. Sale to commence precisely at Eleven o'clock.

Additional notes

According to Bradney's History of Monmouthshire, Part 1 (1904) (p.:

Kingsfield takes its name from being the place where King Henry III encamped when he was attacked and defeated by Hubert de Burgh in 1232. In the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century this place belonged to a family named James, who seemed to have been an old family in Grosmont. It was sold to Colonel Scudamore about 1860. The same family also owned Trevyr, the Grug Lodge, and the Town Farm.

Bradney describes Town Farm thus (p.86):

The Town Farm, so called because of its situation at the edge of the town, also belongs to Mrs Gazzard. At the end of the eighteenth century it belonged to William Roberts James, who in 1806, then residing in Serle Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, married Maria Hodges. He died in 1850 at Lested Lodge, near Sutton Vallance, Kent, having had issue Maria, William, Eliza, Amelia, Helen, Robert Edwards, Henry Brandram, Thomas Lloyd, and Edward Wallwyn.

The house is a very old one, some of it having been apparently built in the early part of the sixteenth century. Over the door is the date 1673, and on the door-frame of the stable 1671.

Grosmont Chest Tomb - Angelina James

James and Edmonds in Gwent Archives: Documents deposited by Messrs Williams, Son, Pryce and Tweedy

1 February 1688

In the marriage settlement of Thomas Edwards and Sarah Delahay, reference to tenements, etc in the parishes of Skenfreth and Grosmont near 'the lands late of Phillip James, of William James, of Jane Phillips, widow of Isaack Williams gent.

1 February 1688

Similar but also ending with 'and other lands of Phillip James.'

13 June 1714

Reference to 'a house in the town of Grosmont in the possession of Thomas James as tenant..'

Similar 6 September 1718. Similar 4 May 1713 - all described as 'late of'.(Both filed under parish of Skenfrith).

12 February 1803

25 December 1825

Conveyance. Lease for a year with 4 names including William Edmonds of Skenfreth, farmer (filed under Skenfith).

Charles James gent tenant (with two others) recovery of property, land in Grosmont.

7 February 1849

1. Walter Prosser of Much Birch co. Hereford yeoman
2. Thomas James of Grosmont co. Mon Blacksmith and Ann his wife
3. Edward McCormick of Grosmont, land surveyor and Elizabeth his wife
4. Thomas Prosser of Monmouth, draper's assistant
5. Elizabeth Prosser of Little Kingsfield par. Grosmont widow
6. John Prosser, otherwise John Prosser Williams yeoman
7. Thomas Prosser and Edward Carpenter of Kingsfield par. Grosmont, farmer

DECLARATION OF TRUST
£700 a part share arising out of a sale of a mess farm, cottage and certain lands par. Grosmont, invested in public funds

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