James was born on February 26th, 1787. He died at the age of 58 on July 11th, 1845.
General Notes
Baptised (says Rev. W. O. Raymond, "Historical Sketches," Woodstock Dispatch) by Rev. Richard Clark, of Gagetown, N.B., and was an infant of one or two years when his father removed to Woodstock. He was an active and enterprising man. He built his homestead on his father's land, and all his children were born there. With the assistance of his brother Adam he built the first schoolhouse in that part of the Parish, and when that was destroyed by fire, he built another. He farmed the intervale land and from clay there he made the first bricks made in the neighborhood, and judging from the remains of old kilns he made lime also. During the War of 1812, he was called into service with the York County Militia, Capt. Richard Ketchum's Company, and spent one winter in garrison at Fredericton. He held various parish offices, as overseer of the poor, etc. He met death by drowning, falling from a boat when fishing for salmon in the St. John River, and was buried in the old burying-place on the Anthony Baker farm in north Woodstock. The railroad afterwards passed through this burying ground, and his grave, if still able to be recognized as such, is unmarked by any stone.