You’ll remember that last month, our ancestors begin dissatisfied with their lot in Wales, threw in with William Penn and came to America.
In trying to isolate the James from whom we descended, I read up on several possible candidates. There was a John James of Llantgervel who was listed as one of the religious dissenters who suffered greatly for his faith and was convicted twice within 3 months in 1675 for meeting unlawfully. Also in 1657 there was a John William James who was born in Pembrokeshire, Wales. At an early age he became involved with his sovereign, James II of England, regarding a fish pond and fish (I suspect he was poaching). He became the subject of a chase by the King’s men. “He was sought but never apprehended”, so the record states. He left Wales and went to the north of Ireland where he joined the forces of William Henry, Prince of Orange. After entering the army at the age of 16, he became a captain of the dragoons under William of Orange. After the wars he settled in Drosmore, County Down and there married Anne Wyndham, daughter of Sir Thomas Wyndham Bart and Elizabeth Croke. Their three children, John, Elizabeth and William, came to America in 1732 and settled at Kings Tree, Williamsburg District, South Caroline. Because of the circumstances of these two James’s coming to America and other things that I have read, it is my personal belief that we did not descend from either of them but rather from James James who came to America with William Penn.
It is certain that the James’s were the first to settle in America because records indicate some of King John’s land went to Howell and Phillip James of Pennsylvania. In addition, names like James James, Howell James, Phillip James, Thomas James, William James, John James, and David James, who were probably brothers or closely related, keep popping up in later generations. They lived in Philadelphia, Rednor and Haverford, Pennsylvania.
Conversion to the Baptist religion from Quakerism occurred while the James’s were living amongst Baptist in New Castle County, Pennsylvania. A new group of Welsh migrated to South Caroline from 1736-1742. Royal grants of land were given to them on both sides of the Pee Dee River, with land extending into North Carolina. The James’s were among them.
How to get back to James James who I believe to be our ancestor. James James (16??-1735) came from Pembrokeshire, Wales. He was married in Wales to his first wife, Janet who bore him a son Samuel. They came to America with one of William Penn’s expeditions about 1687. Not long after arriving, on June 5, 1687, Janet died and was buried in the friends burying grounds at Haverford Friends Church, Haverford, Pennsylvania.
About 1678 James married his second wife, Sarah who bore him six children. A son, James James Jr., was the Justice of Peace for Newcastle County Pennsylvania in 1726. Phillip was born in 1701 in Pennepac, Pennsylvania. He was followed by Abel, Daniel, Sarah, and Benjamin. It is Benjamin (Ben) James that we want to keep our eyes on because it is through him that our bloodline continues.
In 1701 William Penn sold a newly opened territory of 30,000 acres to the Welsh people. James James was among the first to buy land in this area, laying out for himself 12,046 acres it wasn’t until 1703, however, that he was granted deed to the land. This was the area called Ironhill in Pencader Hundred in Newcastle County, Pennsylvania. About 1800 this area became part of the state of Delaware where the city of Newark, Delaware is located.
Upon researching maturity Samuel, the eldest son of James James by his first wife was given a large tract of land by his father. Samuel established the Abbington Iron Works, said to be one of the first in the new world.
In 1706 James James was a cofounder of the Welsh Tract Baptist Church, meeting in Newcastle County, Pennsylvania. Another account says James James as “Ruling Elder” in the church was the leader of those who moved to South Carolina in 1735. If, as the previous account states, he died in 1735, it must have been shortly after arriving in South Carolina. Still another account says James James died in 1769. If this is true, that would put him about 100 years old at the time of his death.
In 1737 in South Carolina Lower House set aside 170,000 acres for sale in Craven County for the “Welsh families that were to be imported to this province…” Thus it was that the James family began its southward migration. Since most of the James James family moved to this new territory. It seems natural that a James, Phillip James would be the first minister of the Welsh Neck Baptist Church in South Carolina.
From South Carolina, the Ben James line moved further south and settled in Georgia. From this ancestor was born William Thomas James of Manor, Ware County, Georgia. William Thomas fathered William Duncan James also of Manor who in turn fathered Edward Warren James Sr. of Jacksonville, Florida, our beloved Daddy Red.