Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/James, Thomas (1593?-1635?)
JAMES, THOMAS (1593?–1635?), navigator, a kinsman, it is believed, of Thomas James (d. 1619), alderman and twice mayor of Bristol, was born about 1593 (James, Strange Voyage, portrait prefixed). Thomas Nash, of the Inner Temple, addressed him as ‘my fellow templar,’ but there is no other proof of James's connection with the law (ib. pref.) He was very probably a companion of Button in his voyage into Hudson's Bay in 1612 [see Button, Sir Thomas]; but the first certain mention of him is on 16 July 1628, when he was granted letters of marque for the Dragon of Bristol, of which he was owner and captain (Cal. State Papers, Dom.). In 1631 he was appointed by the merchants of Bristol, with the approval of the king, to command an expedition for ‘the discovery of the north-west passage into the South Sea, and so to proceed to Japan and round the world to the westward.’ Guided, he says, ‘by former experience,’ he decided that one well-conditioned ship of not more than 70 tons would be best for his purpose. His crew of twenty-two men, all told, he carefully selected as ‘unmarried, approved able and healthy seamen, privately recommended for their ability and faithfulness;’ but he refused all who ‘had used the northerly icy seas’ or ‘had been in the like voyage, for some private reasons,’ in all probability referring to the fate of Henry Hudson (d. 1611) [q. v.] On 3 May 1631 he sailed from Bristol in the Henrietta Maria, and on 4 June made the coast of Greenland. The next day they were beset with ice. After rounding Cape Farewell, and making Cape Desolation, they steered a westerly course for Resolution Island, and so into Hudson's Strait. Cold, fog, storm, and adverse winds delayed their passage; it was not till 5 July that they sighted Salisbury Island. The ice forced them to the southward and into Hudson's Bay. After touching at Mansfield Island, they struggled westward, against much fog, north-westerly wind, and biting cold, and on 11 Aug. made the west coast of the bay at ‘a place which was formerly called Hubbert's Hope, but now it is hopeless,’ about lat. 60° N. Keeping then to the southward, on the 17th they were off Port Nelson, and on the 20th sighted the land, low and flat, which they named ‘the new principality of South Wales.’ On the 29th they met Luke Fox [q. v.], who dined on board the Henrietta Maria on the 30th. After parting from Fox, James continued his way towards the south-east; on 3 Sept. he named Cape Henrietta Maria, and so into James's Bay.
They beat to the southward, through storms and cold, till on 6 Oct. they reached an island, which they called Charleton, where they were compelled to remain. The ship could not come within three miles of the shore; the weather was tempestuous, and the ice made approach difficult. They built a hut on shore, and on 29 Nov. ran the ship aground and bored holes in her bottom, to keep her from bumping. After a miserable winter they dug the ice out of the ship in May, and got her afloat again in sound condition, contrary to all expectations, and after further examination, in better weather, of James's Bay and the south coast of Hudson's Bay, sailed for England. They arrived at Bristol on 22 Oct. 1632, after a bad voyage, with the ship so injured ‘that it was miraculous how she could bring us home.’ Fox wrote slightingly about the Henrietta Maria as a ship too small for the voyage, and of James himself as no seaman. But James and his ship made this very remarkable voyage in an exceptionally bad season, wintered, though without proper appliances, and came safely home again with the loss of only four men.
On 6 April 1633 James was appointed to command the Ninth Whelp, cruising in the Bristol Channel and over to the coast of Ireland, for the prevention of piracy. On 29 Jan. 1634–5 he wrote to Nicholas that he was utterly disabled by sickness for any employment that year, and on 3 March Sir Beverley Newcomen was appointed to succeed him in command of the Ninth Whelp (Cal. State Papers, Dom.) It is doubtful whether he died of the sickness or is to be identified with the Thomas James whose petition was referred to the admiralty committee on 22 April 1651 (ib.), or with the Thomas James of Buntingford, Hertfordshire, who was appointed on 3–19 Dec. 1653 (ib.) a trustee for the money granted by parliament to the widow of Edmund Button, slain in the battle of Portland [see Button, Sir Thomas].
The spirited account of James's arctic voyage, first published in 1633, shows him as an experienced seaman, a scientific navigator, and a careful observer not only of latitude, longitude, and variation of compass, but of tides, ‘overfalls,’ and other natural phenomena. An attempt has been made to prove that James's narrative is the original of the ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner,’ and some remarkable agreements of thought and expression have been pointed out (Nicholls, p. 76; Ivor James, The Source of the Ancient Mariner, 1890). That Coleridge had read and been impressed by James's story is very probable; but the incidents he has described have little resemblance to those of the voyage. A portrait is on the original map.
[The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of Captain Thomas James in his intended Discovery of the North-West Passage into the South Sea … Published by His Majesty's Command (sm. 4to, not dated [1633]); a second edition was published in 1740; it was also printed in Harris's Collection of Voyages, 1705, vol. ii., and in Churchill's Collection of Voyages, vol. ii. An abridgment is given in Rundall's Voyages towards the North-West (Hakluyt Soc.); Nicholls's Bristol Biographies, No. 2; notes kindly supplied by Mr. Fullarton James and Mr. Ivor James.]