natural history. He was given complete charge of the large collections of that society, and during his tenure of office arranged, labeled, and catalogued the library, and specimens in botany, zoology, mineralogy, geology, and other subjects. This place he resigned in August, 1886, to take the chair of botany and geology in Miami university, Oxford, Ohio, and meanwhile since 1883 he has also held the professorship of botany in the de- partment of pharmacy in the University of Cincin- nati. He is a member of scientific societies, and the author of frequent papers on botany and ge- ology in scientific journals.
JAMES, Maria, poet, b. in Wales 11 Oct., 1793;
d. in Rhinebeck, N. Y., 11 Sept., 1868. She emi-
grated to the United States in 1803, and after her
tenth year lived at domestic service in the Garrison
family, of Dutchess county, N. Y. In 1833 some of
her compositions attracted the attention of Prof.
Alonzo Potter, of Union college, who introduced a
collection of them to the public under the title of
" Wales and Other Poems " (New York, 1839).
JAMES, Thomas, English navigator, b. about
1590. He was employed in 1631, together with
Luke Fox, by a company of merchants at Bristol
to discover a northwest passage. He left Bristol
on 3 May of that year, and proceeded to Hudson
bay. After wintering on an island in about lati-
tude 52° N., he sailed northward, and on 26 Aug.,
1632, when his further progress was stopped by the
ice, he had attained lat. 65° 30' N. Capt. James
explored Hudson bay, and gave the name of New
Wales to the country on the western side of it.
The southern part of that bay was named James
bay. He returned to England on 22 Oct., and pub-
lished "The Strange and Dangerous Voyage of
Capt. Thomas James for the Discovery of a North-
west Passage to the South Sea " (London. 1633).
JAMES, Thomas, clergyman, b. in England in
1592 ; d. there about 1678. He was graduated at
Cambridge in 1614, and came from Lincolnshire,
where he had been a minister, to Boston on 5 June,
1632. He was ordained in Charlestown, Mass., 2
Nov., 1632, and was the first ministerof that place,
but was discharged in March, 1636, a dissension
having sprung up between him and his congrega-
tion. He then went to New Haven, and in 1642 to
Virginia, but was compelled to leave because he
would not conform to the English church. He re-
turned to New England in June, 1643, and after-
ward to his native country, where he was minister
of Needham, Suffolk, until he was ejected for non-
conformity in 1662. — His son, Thomas, was min-
ister of East Hampton, L. I., from 1650 till the
time of his death in 1696.
JAMES, Thomas Chalkley, physician, b. in
Philadelphia in 1766 : d. there, 25 July, 1835. His
father, Abel, a Quaker of Welsh origin, was a suc-
cessful merchant of Philadelphia, and his mother
was a daughter of Thomas Chalkley, the Quaker
preacher. The son was educated at Robert Prout's
school, studied medicine, and was graduated at the
University of Pennsylvania in 1787. He then went
as surgeon of a ship to the Cape of Good Hope, and
studied in London and Edinburgh from 1790 till
1793, when he returned to the United States. In
1803 he established the School of obstetrics in
Philadelphia, and for twenty-five years was physi-
cian and obstetrician in the Pennsylvania hospital.
He was for some years president of the Philadel-
phia college of physicians, and was professor of
midwifery in the University of Pennsylvania from
1811 till 1834. Dr. James was founder of the
Pennsylvania historical societv, and contributed to
D.," translations of the " Idyls " of Gessner. He
was associate editor of the " Eclectic Repertory."
JAMES, Thomas Lemuel, banker, b. in Utica, N. Y., 29 March, 1831. His grandparents on both
sides emigrated to the United States from Wales in
1800. After studying in the common schools and
the Utica academy, he learned the printer's trade
in the office of the Utica " Liberty Press." and in
1851 bought the "Madison County Journal," a Whig newspaper, published at Hamilton, N. Y. In 1856, when the Republican party made its first national canvass, his paper was united with the "Democratic Reflector " under the name of the "Democratic Republican." He continued in journalism for ten years, meanwhile also serving as collector of canal tolls at Hamilton in 1854-'5. In 1861 he was appointed an inspector of customs in New York city, and three years later was promoted to be weigher. In 1870 he was appointed deputy collector, and placed in charge of the warehouse division and the bonded warehouses of the port. The records of the division were in confusion, and the general work from one to three years behind, but in one month Mr. James reported the exact condition of the division, and within six months he had brought the business up to date. Prevailing laxity had given way to the utmost efficiency. He was appointed by Gen. Arthur, who had become collector, a member of the civil-service board of the collector's and surveyor's offices, was made its chairman, and was among the earliest and most steadfast of public officials in advocating and applying the reform of the civil service by establishing the system of appointments upon the basis of examination and merit. On 17 March, 1873, Mr. James was appointed postmaster of New York by President Grant, and he was reappointed four years later by President Hayes. His service is recognized as marking a new era in postal administration. The two aims which he kept steadily in view were, first, to bring the office and its working force up to the highest state of efficiency, and, second, to improve and increase the postal facilities wherever practicable. The deliveries were multiplied, fast mails were recommended and obtained, the foreign mails were expedited, and the security of the mails was increased by careful devices. After the removal of Gen. Arthur from the collectorship, the President tendered the appointment to Mr. James, but he declined it on the ground that, having been Gen. Arthur's deputy, he could not consent to supersede him. In 1880, when David M. Key resigned the postmaster-generalship, President Hayes offered this place in his cabinet to Mr. James, who, on consultation with his friends, declined it. The same year the Republicans named him for mayor of New York, but he declined the nomination. When President Garfield announced his cabinet, 5 March, 1881, Mr. James was included as postmaster-general, and two days later entered on the duties of the office. The assassination of the president and the accession of Vice-President Arthur caused a complete recast of the cabinet, and Mr. James retired, 4 Jan., 1882. Though he thus served only ten months, his administration was not too brief to be distinguished by important and lasting reforms. When he began he found an annual deficit of $2,000,000, which had varied in amount every year from 1865, and, with one or two exceptions, from 1851. His policy of retrenchment and reform was immediately begun. The reductions that he made in the star service amounted to $1,713,541, and those in the steamboat service to over $300,000, thus effecting an aggregate saving of over $2,000,000. In
