The James family has a number of spinsters and bachelors who have never married.
While researching recently, I came across a newspaper item in the Harrodsburg (Ky.) Herald from 1909. A line of the James family lived in and around Harrodsburg at the time, and some still do today. The paper editorialized that the town’s spinsters and bachelors should marry or be imprisoned. To which came the following reply from a reader in nearby Danville, where James family members also lived:
“After reading your article regarding the new law that old maids over 30 must get married or go to jail, I would like to say that this old maid, in company with another one have been counting up, and we have found 131 over 30 in Danville…It isn’t our fault that we are not married, so for goodness sake don’t suggest such laws that will imprison innocent parties…
“There are plenty of old bachelors who might come to our rescue if they only would but they are too shy to ask the question, or else too stingy to take care of a wife…
“I haven’t been kissed for 13 years, nor my friend for 25. Can’t you please induce somebody to come to the aid of these 131 despairing waiting spinsters? Gray hairs and prison bars don’t go together.”
Years later, yours truly still is quoted on my challenge to chopper celebrity Jesse Gregory James, aka Jesse James. I’m still waiting for his DNA profile. … See MoreSee Less
THE FIRST IMMIGRANT TO AMERICA OF OUR JAMES FAMILY . . .
Stray Leaves, our website below, now reaches back into the 17th century to bring you the story of our first immigrant, John James, in narrative form.
John’s story comes to us through original documents and seasoned source citations, which are also provided.
What John James Tells Us • He arrived at Jamestown. • He transported 10 indentured people. • He was rewarded with a land patent. • The location of his land can be visited today. • He and his neighbors comprised the important founding families of Virginia. • The location of origination of the James in the Old World, as Jesse James family historians say is Pembrokeshire, Wales is disputed and unproven. • The name identity of John’s wife as formerly stated by traditional genealogists is disproved. • John James arrived as an oligarch and royalist with no pretensions to democracy or self-rule. • Early James family wealth was accrued in the tobacco culture and by land speculation. • John and his family were followers of the Church of England. • His children and grandchildren remained savvy and street-wise, relating well with common people. • Generations beyond the grandchildren of John James produced significant diversity in America’s people and culture.
The first foothold of the James family in the New World was secured by John James, the Immigrant. John was born about 1623. Sometime before 1690, he died.