WILLIAM

See also:

• JAMES
• JAMES (Gr. 'IlrKw,l3or, the Heb. Ya`akob or Jacob)
• JAMES (JAMES FRANCIS EDWARD STUART) (1688-1766)
• JAMES, 2ND EARL OF DOUGLAS AND MAR(c. 1358–1388)
• JAMES, DAVID (1839-1893)
• JAMES, EPISTLE OF
• JAMES, GEORGE PAYNE RAINSFOP
• JAMES, HENRY (1843— )
• JAMES, JOHN ANGELL (1785-1859)
• JAMES, THOMAS (c. 1573–1629)
• JAMES, WILLIAM (1842–1910)
• WILLIAM JAMES (d. 1827)

JAMES (d. 1827)  , English naval historian, author of the Naval History of Great Britain from the Declaration of War by France in 1793 to the Accession of George IV., practised as a proctor in the admiralty court of Jamaica between 18or and 1813 . He was in the United States when the war of 1812 broke out, and was detained as a prisoner, but escaped to Halifax . His literary career began by letters to the Naval Chronicle over the signature of " Boxer." In 1816 he published An Inquiry into the Merits of the Principal Naval Actions between Great Britain and the United States . In this pamphlet, which James reprinted in 1817, enlarged and with a new title, his object was to prove that the American frigates were stronger than their British opponents nominally of the same class . In 1819 he began his Naval History, which appeared in five volumes (1822–1824), and was reprinted in six volumes (1826) . It is a monument of pains-taking accuracy in all such matters as dates, names, tonnage, armament and movements of ships, though no attempt is ever made to show the connexion between the various movements . James died on the 28th of May 1827 in London, leaving a widow who received a civil list pension of £v0o . An edition of the Naval History in six volumes, with additions and notes by Capt . F . Chamier, was published in 1837, and a further one in 1886 . An edition epitomized by R . O'Byrne appeared in 1888, and an Index by C .

G . Toogood was issued by the

Navy Records Society in 1895 .