BIO: John M. James, 1751-c. 1853, Pulaski County ------------------------ Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Eric James Email Registry Submitter Date: 20 Oct 2002 ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net *********************************************************************** From the Stray Leaves website, with permission: STRAY LEAVES, A JAMES FAMILY IN AMERICA SINCE 1650 http://www.ericjames.org JOHN M. JAMES 1751- c.1823 The family of JOHN M. JAMES had been in America since 1650. His great grandfather John James immigrated from Caernarvon, Wales, where the family descended from the crowns of Edward II & Edward III. James family lore identifies themselves as bastards of a crown. In colonial Virginia the James were agriculturists. They planted tobacco & assembled estates which included a land grant from Lord Thomas Fairfax handed down from Charles II. They married into prominent families, and exercised their faith at Aquia Church & Overwharton Parish. They also participated in the Virginian recreation of the day - politics and building a government. In March of 1770 John M. James married Clara Nalle, born in 1755. She was his second choice, his first choice having run off with another man. The Nalle family of Rappahonack, Essex County, Virginia, were second generation American descendants of the Nalle & Aldin families of England. Clara Nalle's father was Maritn Nalle, a Captain of the Virginian Minute Men. During the War Of The Revolution, these James were suppliers to American armies. Some James were Culpeper Minute Men, serving under the rattlesnake flag proclaiming "Don't Tread On Me." While brothers, uncles, & cousins had their own commands, John M. James served under his neighbor, Benjamin Harrison, and his Fauquier County Militia. John M. James also served in the 11th and 15th Virginia Regiments, under Col. Daniel Morgan. At war's end John & Clara returned to Spottsylvania County, Virginia, from Pitt County, North Carolina. An ambitious 30 year old John M. James was ready to strike his fortunes in the new America. As America was born, the rigors of the Anglican, Episcopalian, and Presbyterian faiths were supplanted by Baptists who sought a faith more simple and free. John M. James aligned his family with "The Travelling Church." In September 1781, at Upper Spottsylvania Baptist Church, a large and disordered assembly of men, women, children, slaves, animals, and wagons set out for the "District of Kentucke" in western Virginia, on a path of Daniel Boone's over mountains to a land the native-American Shawnee called their heaven on earth. The next year John M. James was on the payroll of the Ranging Party of Lincoln Militia, under Col. Benjamin Logan, assisting settlers entering the region. In this year his father Joseph James, the elder, died in Culepper County, Virginia. For the next ten years, sometimes under the command of George Rogers Clark, John M. James remained in the Kentucke to settle its frontier. His family was first safely established at the Forks of the Elkhorn River near Frankfort. There, as Rev. John M. James, he co-founded The Forks of the Elkhorn Baptist Church. About 1785 he & Clara travelled buffalo & Indian traces to St. Asaph's, Logan's Fort, one mile from today's Stanford, Lincoln county, Kentucky. There they prepared to settle permanently in Crab Orchard, a community rapidly becoming a safe settlement hub & magnate for fashionable Virginian frontier society. He traded in building materials rare on the frontier, brick & glass. His brother William James migrated from the Forks to present Woodford County, where descendants of William James bore the celebrated American outlaws Frank & Jesse James. John M. James hired Daniel Field in 1788 as attorney to settle all remaining debts back in Culpeper County. Since 1782 John M. James had been purchasing land on Dick's River adjoining William Whitley's pre-emption and William Menifee's settlement. John & brother George James had been surveying & purchasing other lands, too. In 1802 John M. James purchased 70 acres of William Whitley's land, giving Whitley the necessary funds to construct his home, the first brick residence on the Kentucky frontier, presently preserved by the State of Kentucky as a museum. John M. James followed shortly, building the second brick residence on the frontier in an area of Lincoln County which later became Pulaski County. This home also remains today. Abraham James, another family member, was surveying lands in Lincoln County at this time. Gen. George Washington had been investing there. On March 3, 1789, Lund Washington Sr., reported to the future President on the eve of his inauguration, that Lund Jr., Washington's nephew, had recently visited John M. James' granduncle, Justice John James who stated, "We should have a very pretty President at the head of our new government, one who had paid off his debts within the time of the War with paper money altho it had been lent to him in specie." A grandson of John M. James, Andrew Jackson "A.J." James, Kentucky Attorney General and later Kentucky Secretary of State, would establish a standardized monetary system for Kentucky. When the State of Kentucky was formed in 1794, John M. James was appointed Commissioner to examine the Cumberland Gap Road & to audit the turnpike keeper. When he helped to cut Pulaski County out of Lincoln County and to found the new town of Somerset in 1799, he also served as the first judge & executive to administer the new county. In 1800 he became a Justice, answering citizen petitions in both Pulaski & Lincoln counties. In 1801 Governor James Garrard appointed him Justice of the Peace. John M. James was elected to the Kentucky State Legislature three times, in 1800, 1802, & 1807. As a state representative, he established local & circuit courts, and a state Court of Appeals for the Commonwealth. He provided for the inspection of crops, including flour, hemp, & tobacco, leading to uniform valuations. To further settle Kentucky, he provided for aliens to hold lands & for improvement of vacant lands. He also established penal laws & the first penitentiary. Before leaving office, he simplified laws regarding slaves, free blacks, mulattos, and Indians. Today the descendants of John M. James span the breadth of America & number more than 5000. They have crossed cultures, and even include descendant lines of Choctaw and Cherokee native-Americans. Public service remains a consistent family profession. Many have served as attorneys, judges, sheriffs, commissioners, mayors, state representatives, and governors. Many Baptist churches have been founded by numerous James ministers. Rev. John M. James was a co-founder of the Flat Lick Baptist Church of Pulaski county, Kentucky. This church is widely recognized as the mother church of all Baptist churches in Kentucky and in 1999 celebrated its 200th anniversary. The descendants of John M. James are poets, writers, educators, & founders of universities. As engineers they have built industrial America, while some still tend to their agricultural heritage in the 21st century. These James are known for high intelligence, diligence, an irrepressible sense of humor, and a unique ability to confound expectation. Like John M. James himself, his descendants remain pioneers and architects of community in America.