JAMES, WILLLtM ( An English naval historian. His birthplace and parentage are unknown, and the first record that can be found of him is in 1801. when his name appears among those of the attorneys in the Jamaica Supreme Court. At the outbreak of the War of 181• he was in America and was held as a pris oner until IS13, when he succeeded in escaping to Halifax. Soon after gaining his freedom he began writing letters on the war to the Yarn/ Chronicle, sipned 'Boxer,' and in 1816 he wrote a pamphlet entitled An Inquiry Into the Merits of the Principal Naral Actions Between Great Britain and the United States, in which he manifested the greatest bitterness. His pamphlet met with such success that the next year he republi.shed it in greatly enlarged form and re entitled A Full and Correct Account of the Chief Nava/ accarrencrs of the hate liar Between Great Britain and the Vnitcd Stales of America. A year later (ISIS) he published the companion work, Full and Correct Account of the Military Occurrences of the Lute War Between Great Britain and the United States of America, and followed this in 1519 with a pamphlet entitled Ward•l. Refuted, being a Defense of the British
ary against the Misrepresentations of a Work recently published at Edinburgh " by D. B. Warden, late Consul for the United States at l'aris. in this same year he began his chief WO rk, The Fugal History of Great Britain front the Declaration of liar by France in 179.1 to the Accession of George /V., which was originally published in 1822-24 in five volumes, but was republished in 1826 in six volumes, and again in 1837 also in six volumes, but including addi tional matter relating to the first Burmese War and to the battle of Navarino written by Captain Frederick Charnier. As an historian. James de serves the greatest credit for the fidelity and thoroughness with which he did his work. He spared no pains to consult all original British sources; consequently his histories. in so far as they deal with British subjects, are accepted as authoritative. Unfortunately. however, his nar row patriotism, and especially his animosity against the Americans, greatly impair the value of his work when he is dealing with foreigners.