Biography

George Payne Rainsford James was an English novelist and historical writer. He had wanted to go into the navy when he was younger, but his father forbid him based on his own experience, and he joined the army instead. He was a lieutenant for a short period of time during the Hundred Days, but was wounded after the Battle of Waterloo and so decided to travel Europe instead. He wrote his first novel in 1825, and was then encouraged by Walter Scott and Washington Irving to become a novelist as his profession. He married the daughter of a prominent physician (Honoratus Leigh Thomas) in 1828, and they lived in France, Italy, and Scotland throughout their marriage. He also published several official pamphlets during the last years of William IV's reign, when he was appointed Historiographer Royal. James also spent some time in the US later in his life. In 1850 he travelled to New York and rented Charles Astor Bristed's house at Hell Gate, he then bought a house and property in Stockbridge, MA, in 1851. He was appointed the British Consul at Norfolk, Virginia in 1852 and moved to Richmond in 1856 when the Consulate was moved there.