A Naval Biographical Dictionary/James, Thomas Edward
JAMES. (Lieutenant, 1815. f-p., 21; h-p., 20.)
Thomas Edward James entered the Navy, 3 April, 1806, as Fst.-cl. Vol., on board the Hibernia 120, Capt. Tristram Robt. Bicketts, in which ship he served under the flags of Earl St. Vincent, Sir Wm. Sidney Smith, and Sir Chas. Cotton, on the Channel, Lisbon, and Mediterranean stations, until Nov. 1810 – nearly the whole time in the capacity of Midshipman. He had an opportunity, therefore of witnessing, while with Sir W. S. Smith, the departure of the Royal Family of Portugal for the Brazils in 1807. In Dec. 1810, after he had further served for a short time with Sir Chas. Cotton in the San Josef 110, he joined the Nautilus 18, Capt. Thos. Bench, under whom, during a continued employment of nearly four years in the Mediterranean, he participated, among other performances, in the capture of three armed vessels, carrying in the whole 23 guns and 235 men. From Nov. 1814 until Aug. 1815 Mr. James, whose commission bears date 20 Feb. in the latter year, served in the North Sea and Channel as Master’s Mate of the Alert sloop, Capt. Joseph Gulston Garland. His subsequent appointments were – 26 Oct. 1820, to the Lee sloop, Capt. Stewart Blacker, lying at Plymouth – 17 Jan. and 22 March, 1822, to the Cyrené and Arab, Capts. Percy Grace and Wm. Holmes, from the latter of which vessels he was superseded at his own request – and, 1 July, 1834, to the Coast Guard. He left that service in 1844, and has since been on half-pay.