Part Three: Other James Families in County Carlow

So far, we’ve had it easy. Really we’ve just traced one Carlow James family, tWilliam JAMES and Mary Noble. In fact, other James births at Tullowphellim, Urglin, Cloyda, Fennagh, Dunleckney, Myshall, Sliguff and Kiltennel parishes are much more fragmentary. Below I’ll attempt to make some sense of some of them, by connecting them, where possible to James families already described. Let’s start with the one from Page 14, marriage between John Noble James and Fanny James.

The Thomas James Family of Carrig Beg, Ballyknocken, Carlow

I have chosen this family as one whose history has been pieced together, at least to some extent, and who, like many other James families found their way to Lanark County in Canada. Ballyknocken, the seat of John James (d. 1735) was just outside Fennagh, 5 miles from Bagenalstown. Carrig Beg (Gaelic for Little Stone) is/was located 2.5 miles from Ballyknocken and Bally-Timin towards Bagenalstown, within a mile of the famous “unfinished” Ballymoon Castle. While Carrig Beg (and its counterpart

Carrig Mor ) can be specifically located on a satellite map today, it is impossible to tell whether there is still a building there. At the turn of the eighteenth century Thomas James and his wife Frances Wellwood were having their children there. Samuel Wellwood (1743-1790) Frances’ father had arrived at Fennagh from Glasgow, Scotland, marrying Jane Lucas August 14th 1769, the same Jane Lucas who would accompany her grandson, John James and his wife Amelia Thorp along with members of the Wellwood family to Lanark County in Canada in her 70th year. Frances was the firstborn (1770) then Mary (who m. John Thorp) William (1774-1801) Daniel (1776-) who m. Ann Little, Robert (1781-18564 who emigrated to Canada in 1820 m. Margaret Corrigan, Sarah (1784 -) Jane (1789-90) and Judith (1790.) Robert’s family were Samuel Wellwood (1802-1886) William Wellwood (1804-1833) Sarah Jane Wellwood (m. Henry Deacon) and John Wellwood who m. Jane Caswell (their descendants can be seen at the Wellwood web site.) Frances Wellwood married Thomas James and they lived at the townland of Carrig Beg. Researcher Neill James founf that their family included :

1.John James - baptised 02 Jan 1795. (died 1879 Canada)

2. Jane James - baptised 01 Feb 1797 (This record confirms that her parents Thomas and Frances James were from Carrigbeg), confirmed 21 Sep 1821 (This record also confirms that Jane James was from Carrigbeg).

3. Thomas James - baptised 03 Oct 1803, confirmed 10 Jun 1822.4. Sarah James - baptised 27 Oct 1807, confirmed 10 Jun 1822.5. Ephraim James - baptised 19 May 1809.

I've located a marriage record for Sarah James as she was married to a James Little of Fermoy, County Cork, on 22 Oct 1840 at Dunleckney parish church. Ephraim James and a W James were the witnesses to this marriage. I've also located a marriage record for Ephraim James as he was married to an Alicia Clarke of Clonegath (Clonegah), on 01 Aug 1850 at Bagenalstown Church in the parish of Dunleckney. Ephraim James was then living at Newtown. It was Frances (Fanny) from this family (Ephraim and Alicia who married John Noble James from Tullow in 1871.) It would appear that Ephraim James died in 1869 aged 60. (Neill James)

This photograph is believed to be of Jane Lucas (1750 - 1848)

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Neill also located another record, this time from the C of. I at Carlow, which detailed the confirmation of four people from Carrig Beg (or Carrigbeg) dated Sept. 26th 1821.

It would certainly strongly suggest that there were two further males and one further female in Thomas and Frances JAMES family at Carrig Beg, and an unidentified (but not totally uxexpected) Anne Wellwood. Were these children simply otherwise unrecorded?

To weigh the significance of this find, I have chosen to look at three other JAMES families who were having children at the same time as Thomas and Frances at Dunleckney:.

Edward and Rachel James baptized:Mary 1798Richard 1804Edward 1808John 1813Joseph 1816Jacob 1818 and Benjamin

William and Judith James baptized:Thomas 1803Henry 1805John 1806William 1812William 1813William 1817

Stephen and Mary James baptized Thomas 1806

Then, in a new generation of births,William and Sarah JAMES baptized John in 1819John and Mary JAMES baptized William 1826 and John 1832Benjamin and Elizabeth JAMES baptized Thomas1832 Benjamin 1833 Elizabeth 1836 and Mary 1838.

CONJECTURE : It was not obviously apparent that the other Dunleckney families were offspring of Thomas James, though William/ Judith seemed good candidates with a Thomas and a John in their family. Stephen/Mary also had a Thomas as their firstborn. But the name Samuel James appears nowhere in the James male line (before or after), and seems to have been chosen to celebrate Frances’ father Samuel Wellwood. Thus the forenames Mary, William and Samuel are deemed likely names of children of John and Frances. This would agree with Neil James discovery of William James b. 1801 at Sliguff Parish who married Margaret Agar (1801-1873 daughter of Luke and Anna) with children Thomas James (1835-1901) Ann (1837-1916) Frances (1838-1908) and Elizabeth 1842-68). A Roger Nolan has added that a widowed Mary James of Fennagh was mother-in-law of one Sarah James b. 1745 who m. Michael Nolan.

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Making this story of James and Wellwood families who came to Lanark come alive somewhat, let me quote from a 1977 letter from Margaret Doerr to her relatives forwarded to my website.

“....When we left Limerick we headed for a farm-guest house in County Carlow and it proved to be such a delightful place that we stayed ten days there. (Shirley Mayse had stayed there and had mentioned it in a letter.) It also proved to be very near to where our Wellwood ancestors once lived. We first called on Sam Thorpe, who lives near Tullow, in the same house where Mary Wellwood and husband John Thorpe lived before 1800. Sam and his wife Rachel (the Rachel Knappel about whom you sent me a newspaper clipping) are great folks. Beside calling there one evening I spent most of a Sunday at their house going over old papers and documents which he has, that have been in the house – some of them – since Mary Wellwood’s time. He has the original marriage agreement drawn up in 1792 when Mary married John Thorpe. There was also a letter from Canada, written in 1843, by Amelia Thorpe James, Mary’s daughter, and sister to Fannie Thorpe Wright who eloped from that house. I hand copied as many of these documents as I had time to, and took photos of the old house. However, the present Thorpes had little knowledge of Mary Wellwood’s family, so could not tell us where our ancestor Robert might have lived before he emigrated.

Gail and I spent a good bit of time looking for the Townlands mentioned in the abstract of Samuel Wellwood’s will. (Classganny, Clooristic, and Currenree). It isn’t easy to find any place in Ireland. Rural roads are nameless, or at least have no signs to help “furriners”, and apparently one has to have been born there to locate farms and villages. But with the aid of survey maps that showed obscure rural roads, and our trusty rented Ford, we got to know the countryside pretty well. We forget how new places like Michigan (and British Columbia) are, until one spends some time in rural Ireland. The stone walls and hedges have been there for centuries, and many of the buildings – often still occupied – look pretty much as they must have looked when Michigan was still primeval forest. We found “Currenree” not far from the Old Rectory where we were lodging, though did not find an occupied house there.

We also found Clooristic, but not until our last day in the area, did we find Classganny, where Samuel Wellwood and his wife Jane Lucas lived, and where our ancestor Robert also must have lived until he emigrated. A James family is living there now, though not in the original old house. They showed us a corner of their back field which they called the Wellwood corner, where former garden flowers now grow wild. This presumably is where the Wellwood house once stood. The present James family is Jack James, wife and children, and Jack’s father Thomas James and his wife. – Since their emigrant ancestor Robert Wellwood had a sister Frances who married Thomas James in 1790, it seems probable that the present James family are also relatives, just as the Thorpes are, but in the brief time I had with them, I can’t say that we proved this conclusively. The most remarkable coincidence took place when Mr. Jack James took me up the road to see three unmarried sisters of his father’s who all live together in a very poor little ancient stone cottage. The eldest of these sisters was well past 90 and her mind wandered a bit, but she was very clear about some things. I’m sure these three could have been very helpful, if I had had more time to spend with them, and let them reminisce. Also, I was a bit self-conscious about taking notes, so couldn’t always remember the bits they did tell me. But just before I left one of the sisters brought out a couple of photographs that had been sent to them from Canada – or rather, sent to their parents. The pictures were identified on the back as Samuel Wellwood and Susannah Wellwood. They were exact duplicates of a pair of photos that my sister Gail has, which were found among my grandfather Wellwood’s possessions. We have assumed that they were pictures of Robert Wellwood’s son Sam and his daughter (an elder brother to your grandfather John). The fact that these photographs have been handed down in both families, would seem to be proof that we are related to this James family. Perhaps doubly so, since they are descended from the Lucases and may also be descended from Frances Wellwood James whose mother was Jane Lucas Wellwood.

A final puzzle piece was uncovered in Dublin, at the registry of Deeds office where I found a record of the transfer of ½ of Robert Lucas’ farm in Classganny, to Samuel Wellwood, of Kellistown, when he married Robert Lucas’ daughter Jane. In 1769. Thus the farm at Classganny came into the Wellwood family, along with Jane Lucas, as a dowry no doubt. When Robert, Jane’s youngest son emigrated to Canada, taking his widowed mother Jane with him, the land evidently continued to be occupied by Lucas descendants and Jane’s daughter Frances Wellwood James. Frances Wellwood James’ son John married Mary Wellwood Thorpe’s daughter Amelia. They also emigrated to Canada.

It is this Amelia James’s letter that I copied at Sam Thorpe’s house. (Will enclose a transcript for you.) Sam Thorpe is living at Kingclough, near Tullow, and the James family live just outside the village of Fennah, but neither of them seemed to be particularly aware of each other, or of any kinship. So many times I’ve wished I could go back there and spend more time. I’d like to get all these people together, perhaps with a tape recorder – because I’m sure that if all

Samuel Wellwood (1802 - 1886)

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the bits of family lore and legend that they recall could be pieced together, we’d have a fairly complete record of our Wellwood/Lucas ancestry back into the early 1700’s! But unfortunately it took all the time I had just to locate these people and places. And so often information came to me in the wrong order. Information I gleaned later in Dublin, would have helped me greatly in making sense of, or assimilating information from the Thorpes or Jamses.

While still staying in County Carlow we took several trips to Kilkenny and to the Abbeyleix area, where there are Wellwoods living now. We called on a Mr. James Wellwood near Freshford, and a Robert Wellwood near Abbeyleix. From what they told me, they are quite probably related to the Wellwoods who are Mr. Clare Thompson’s ancestors, and I hope eventually to find time to pass this information along to him. I am quite certain, in my own mind, that all these Wellwoods, in Co. Kilkenny and in Queens Co. (Laois or Leix) are all related to our Co. Carlow Wellwoods, but the connecting links have not yet been found.

While still in Co. Carlow, Gail and I spent some time hunting for the Kellystown church, thinking that we might find Robert’s father Samuel buried there, and perhaps his (Samuel’s) parents also. But when we found the church (today just an empty shell of a building) the old churchyard was so overgrown that few of the gravestones were still legible. In trying to find the church we stumbled onto the Staplestown church and glanced briefly at the churchyard there. Finally – on our last day in Dublin – we discovered a report on Wellwood genealogy prepared at Dublin Castle for someone inquiring about Welllwoods in Queen’s County. It gave information about our family, most of it already known to us except the fact that Samuel Wellwood of Classganny is buried in Staplestown, with his two daughters, Elizabeth and Jane, who both died, as small children or infants, within the year after their father died in 1790. Which accounts for the fact that these two, mentioned in Samuel’s will, were not heard of again. Once more we regretted that we had spent so little time searching the Staplestown churchyard – but when we were there we were working on the theory that Samuel was probably buried at Kellystown. The Dublin Castle report referred to him as Samuel Wellwood “late of Glasgow”. If this be true, then Robert’s own father is the link with Scotland, and he came into Ireland as a young man sometime before his marriage to Jane Lucas in 1769. Perhaps he came as a child with his parents, since Samuel had three brothers and a sister all living in Ireland in 1790 I suspect that the other Wellwood families in Ireland, may be descended from these brothers. It seems as though we were so close to getting it all together, to trace our ancestry through Ireland, back to Scotland. But I suppose we accomplished quite a lot, for the three weeks time we did spend in Ireland. I find that one should have months, not just weeks, to do genealogical research in a foreign country. A large amount of time is spent just learning your way around and where to go to find various types of records. Then one also needs time to do nothing but go over all the bits of information collected, to organize and assimilate them, - or else you end up, as we did, - missing much that you might have learned, because you didn’t know, at the time, what to ask or where to look.” Margaret Duerr

And here is the 1843 letter from Amelia Thorp James to her brother in Ireland

Transcript of a letter written by Amelia Thorp James (1796-1875), wife of John James, to her brother Samuel Thorp. Original of this letter belongs to Sam Thorpe and was copied at his home near Tullow, Co. Carlow, Ireland, in April 1977.

Ramsey, March 26th, 1843

Dear Sam

When I received your letter written the 19th of June I wrote to you immediately, and expected an answer long since. After searching the Post frequently and finding none I again take up my pen to write to you hoping to hear you and your family are in good health as we are at present thank god for all his Mercies yet we are distressed in mind on account of our Circumstances which are very straitened, my spirits was in some degree kept up by indulging the thought that you would lose no time in sending me the money that is coming to me though it be a small sum yet it will help, I think if you knew our situation you would make no delay but send it by the return post. This is the worst year I have seen since I came to America. The crop(s) in a general way were bad, those that had produce to sell could make very little of it, and such was wanted to Buy could not for want of money and that was not to be had, so then those that are in debt, which is most of the country are born down upon by their creditors, canted and broke down, their cows going for 2 £ and their sheep for [?], which case we do not know how soon it may be our own.

Sally never came to see us. She is living in or near Buytown. Fanny was to see her. She told her you had objected to pay her before the older ones that she waited a year on it, that you had the money in your possession which were to pay all, that Mary got her share. Dr Sam I hope you will consider my state lose no time in remitting it to me, let not the thought that I am in a distant land and the sea rolling between us so that I cannot go and speak to you personly nor you see my necessity, let not this thought drive it from your mind. There has been money remitted to families not far from us by receiving a Bank receipt enclosed in a

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letter, then the store keeper advances cash on it. Let me know how my mother is. Tell her to write to me and let me know how all friends are. Say if Gabe Thorp of Ardenshire [not sure of spelling of last word] is still living and how he is. We have not heard from or seen any of our friends who came out but Sally. My grandmother is still living. There is no alteration in the family since I wrote only my oldest daughter Mary Jane is married to William Caswell he is John Wellwood’s Brother-in-Law. Poor John, I often think of him. I hope he has experienced the atoning Blood of Christ. On the day he died my last child was born on the 5 of April.

Dr Sam I believe I have said all that is Necessary only to remember me to Jane [Sam’s wife I presume] and the children, Give my love to my Mother tell her my situation I do not wish her to st—[edge of paper torn here] –help me, to distress herself, do not judge me as covetous. I only want that which comes to me though it be small, it will help me in my extremity and in helping me thus for the conscientiousness of your own mind in having done so, will be a better return than all Thanks and obligations of your

Affect. sister Amelia James

P.S. As soon as I think I could have an answer to this letter I will be searching the post. You know how to direct. [Letter folded and sealed with red sealing wax, postmarked Carleton Place, 31 March 1843. Also postmarked Tullow, May 18, 1843. Letter addressed to : Samuel Thorpe Grangeford, Tullow, County of Carlow Ireland]

[This letter was written by Amelia to her brother Sam after the death of her oldest brother John. Her father, John Thorp had died in 1819, so her brother John as the eldest, then became heir or administrator of the family property. Her brother John died, unmarried, on April 5, 1841, so that Samuel, next in line became heir. Evidently she believes she has some money coming to her from her brother John’s estate, as do her other sisters also, and apparently they believe Sam has been slow to remit what they have coming to them. Sally, whom she says is living in Buytown (Bytown was the old name for Ottawa) is one of her sisters and Fanny (Frances) (Who eloped with George Low Wright) is another of her sisters. Both of these sisters are in Canada. “Mary” who “got her share” is apparently still in Ireland. She asks about her mother Mary Wellwood Thorp who is apparently still alive in Ireland. She mentions her grandmother is also still living. This would be Jane Lucas Wellwood who came to Canada in 1820 with her son Robert (our ancestor) (Jane died in 1848 at age 98) She also mentions her daughter Mary Jane’s marriage to William Caswell, “John Wellwood’s brother-in-law.” In the next line, when she says “Poor John” she is referring to her own brother John who has just died, and not to John Wellwood as it might seem from the way it is written. Shirley Mayse book refers to the marriage of William Caswell to Mary Jane James, and I found their tombstone in the cemetery at Flesherton, Ont.

This letter was obviously received by brother Sam, since it is still in the house where he lived, in the possession of the present Sam Thorpe. Whether Amelia ever received her money will probably never be known. She was living at the time of the letter in Ramsey township, Lanark Co. Ont.,(Ramsay Twp. Con.1 Lot 10) not far from the Wellwoods (Lanark Twp. Con. XII Lot 8 and the lot next to it Ramsay Twp. Con.1 Lot 8 ) and the Caswells. If I ever get to that area I hope to find what happened to her, and her husband John James. The next generation moved on west as did our ancestor John Wellwood, and lived their remaining years in the Huron and Grey co. area.]

Amelia Thorp James letter had been written to her brother at Grangeford, Carlow (Parish of Urglin), 2-3 miles west of Tullow, which is/was a far distabce (10-12 miles) from Carrig Beg where John James had been born. John and Amnelia had been married at Urglin Parish church on July 17th 1823.

From maps, Grangeford is a townland of about 350 acres which was in the early 1700’s attached to the Parish of Urglin, 2-3 miles to the west and 2 miles east of Carlow town, and, most interestingly, 4-6 miles from the James holdings and homestead at Paulsville/Tankardstown.

Grangefordtownland

Tullow

Paulville or Tankardstown

2-3 miles out of Tullow

2-3 miles out of Tullow

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William Smith and Ellen James (of Paulville) daughter of Edward James and Elizabeth Salter James were married at nearby Tullow in 1833 (see below - note erroneous date 1803 which should read 1833) at which time William’s parish was listed as Grangeford.

Further to this, another James -Thorp wedding was held at Urglin in 1874 witnessed, possibly by the same Sam Thorp to whom Amelia had written in 1843 - this time involving one George James of Clonmore/ Fennagh and Maria Francis Thorp of Grangeford.

I am making a “bigger deal” out of the Grangeford connection, in hopes that it will strike a chord with someone “out there” - as, quite by accident, in researching the James name there, four births in the 1730’s turned up to a Thomas and Sarah James of Ballynakill, which appears to be about a mile southeast of Carrig Beg where Thomas James and Frances Wellwood lived when their son John came to Canada, and located one farm away from William James Sr. of Aghold.

Urglin church(1780-1820)

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1730

1732

1736

1743

CONJECTURE: Thomas James, the father of these four girls, living as it seems he did at Ballynakill (unfortunately a rather common name in Ireland - there is one about the same distance from Grangeford in County Wicklow) could be the Thomas James who inheritted his parents’ holdings at Ballyknocken/Ballytimmin in 1735. If we now go back to Page 15, we see that Thomas James (birth day unknown) and Frances Wellwood (1770- ) had a son John James in 1795. It seems likely that Thomas’ birth date was also about 1770. This is 25-30 years from the recorded births at Urglin Parish, so it appears likely that if this was the family of Thomas, oldest son of John, the name of that missing JAMES male would have been John JAMES b.c. 1745 ( and also the reason that Thomas and Frances called their first son John.) Since records for the period before 1790 are very space in Carlow, it is not entirely surprising that a whole generation’s records may be among the missing. It remains unclear how the James family of Carrig Beg were connected with the Thorp family of Grangeford, 8-10 miles away, but the James family home at nearby Paulville/Tankardstown may be the connection. And it was certainly no coincidence that two James families, living far enough apart in Ireland, ended up living in each other’s lap in Lanark County.

The William James Sr. Family of Aghold Come To Canada

Returning to Page 13, reference is made to four brothers (sometimes referred to as half brothers) at least three of whom came to Canada from Aghold beginning in 1820.

But first let’s digress to follow the CHAMNEY family who keep appearing in relation to the JAMES family. History has it that the Chamney family were originally Cholomondelays, the name being shortened when John Cholomodelay 1650-1733) (pictured on the right) married Jane Bacon around the time the family was establishing a highly profitable iron smelting business near Rathdrum, Wicklow and shipping the product to Great Britain. John and Jane appears to have had three sons, Edward (1690-1749) John ( - 1767) and Joseph ( - 1742) Edward lived at Knockalow in Wicklow, about a mile as the crow flies from the James holdings at Paulville. Enigmatically, the nearby Church of Ireland church at Ardoyne, also within a mile or two, was built n 1833 with a grant of land by Mr. William Revell. The first churchwarden was a Thomas James of nearby Tullowclay. Edward Chamney had a son, Edward, who married Jane Twamley in 1761. They had two sons named John (21 April 1765), after the first died. John (1765-1852) married Jane_______. Another son, Edward, James married Rebecca Cummings and several of their

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family emigrated to Canada, including their son Edward Chamney (1812-1969) who became an ancestor of famed Canadian novelist, Alice Munro. John and Jane also gave birth to Elizabeth in 1788.

CONJECTURE: When one assembles a JAMES - Chamney family tree which matches the information which has been circulated for years and which continues to be the information of record on the internet, one gets the tree seen on the right.

Quite evidently this is not workable, is it? If William’s mother were Mary Noble (1719-1817), she would have been 67 when he was born, 67 when Thomas was born, 76 when Richard was born and possibly 82 when Nathanial was born.

Clearly, it’s not just difficult. It’s impossible. Since there are so many web sites corroborating these dates, it can only be that there was another William JAMES between Willam b. 1730 and William b. 1786, and the likelihood (even the necessity, since Mary is the mother of record) is that he had a wife also named Mary. Some original sources (see p. 13) do include a William in the original family, who would have been born some time around 1760.

Emigration to Canada

Suffice it to say William and Elizabeth JAMES brought their thirteen children with them to Canada and were placed at Lanark Con. 12 Lot 12 SW (Nov. 11 1820). Son William Jr. was given Con. 12 Lot 13 NE (nov. 9 1820.) Brother Thomas James was given Con. 10 Lot 11E on Aug. 22 1822. John Chamney, Elizabeth’s brother was given Con. 12 Lot 12E on November 29th 1820. I would like to point out that William James received his land the same day (11/11/20) as Thomas Codd (who received nearby Lanark Twp. Con. 1 Lot 4) who was evidently his neighbor at Aghold. The Codd and James families liberally married into each others families, which will be seen by anyone who follows the links to William and Elizabeth’s offspring. Daughter Mary Jane JAMES m. Thomas Codd b. 1807, and daughter Letitia James married Abraham Codd. This leaves William’s three brothers a little up in the air. So, let’s sort them out as best possible.

Jane

Tw

amle

y

Edw

ard

Cham

ney

THom

asb.

1732

John

( - 1

767)

Jose

pth

(

-174

2)

Edw

ard

(169

0-17

49)

Cath

erin

e

John

Ch

amne

y(1

650-

1733

)

Jane

Ba

con

Thom

asb.

1754

d. 1

808

m. 1761

m. c. 1730

m.c. 1680

Edw

ard

Cham

ney

John

Cham

ney

John

Chan

mey

(176

5-18

52)

Jane

____

____

m.c 1785

Eliz

abet

h Ch

amne

y(1

3 Ju

ly 1

788

_ )

Willi

amJA

MES

(b

. 178

6 )

m. 1804W

illia

m

JAM

ESb.

173

0

Mar

yNo

ble

Jam

es

b.17

15

m. 1754-5

Thom

asJA

MES

b. 1

787

Rich

gard

Ja

mes

b.17

91

Nat

hani

alJa

mes

b.

1799

-180

1

Thomas Herbert James

4th child of Wm. and Elizabeth

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The JAMES Brothers

Thomas James was actually born first, in 1785. His August 19 1785 record at Aghold Parish follows:

Thomas JAMES (1785-1868) married Elizabeth Groves, a relative of the Codd family, joining his brother in 1822. Thomas and Elizabeth’s daughter Mary James married Richard Codd, son of Thomas and Elizabeth, and moved to Werstern Ontario (East Wawanosh) with them in the 1850’s.

John JAMES (1887-1834) may have been born in Kilkenny in 1787 (no existing record) or else somehow ended up in Coolcullen Kilkenny, married Martha Rathwell and came with the large group of emigrant Irish on the brig Maria in 1819. He was located at the Franktown, Prospect area of Beckwith Twp. It might seem like he was not a brother, but his family and William Sr’s family interacted closely, so the fact of the two being brothers is not in dispute.

Richard JAMES was born at Aghold September 5th 1795. He is said to have married a Jane Code, but I can find no Jane Code (Codd) at Aghold (or elsewhere) who fits the bill. He is also said to have come to the Lanark area but I have not been able to find a record of this. We know he was born, but beyond that - not much.

Finally Nathanial James was said to have been born between 1799 and 1801 at Aghold. This was a time because of the Rebellion of 1798 when records became spotty, so it is not a big surprise that a record of his birth has not been found. He came, perhaps with a wife, Jane, or perhaps as a widower by some reports (see record below of birth of son Thomas January 22nd 1826) and on Dec. 11th 1836 a daughter Rebecca (second record) and three children, stayed briefly with William and his family in Lanark before settling in the Renfrew area. These records are slightly at odds with those kept by the William James Sr. family

Mary Chamney James1812-1892wife of Thomas H. James

ST. Michael's Church of Ireland,Aghold Parish, Coolkenno, Wicklow

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