[BITList] She-State Op-Ed

[John Feltham]

To read this Life of the Day complete with a picture of the subject,
visit http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/lotw/2010-07-19



James  [née Banckes],  Elinor  [Eleanor]  (1644/5-1719), printer and polemicist, was the daughter of Mary Banckes; the name of her father is not known. By a marriage licence dated 27 October 1662, at the age of seventeen, she married Thomas James (c.1640-1709/10), a journeyman printer, in the parish of St Olave, Silver Street, London. The bookseller John Dunton described Thomas James, who set up as a master about 1675, as competent and well-read, but as 'something the better known for being husband to that She-State Politician Mrs. Elianor James'  (Life and Errors, 1.252-3). The couple had at least four children, of whom two are known to have lived to adulthood: Jane (1670-1733), who married the printer Thomas Ilive and succeeded him after she was widowed; and Sarah (b. 1673), who married Robert Saunders. A son, Thomas, about whom little is known, was born in 1665; John Nichols confuses him with the Thomas James who was a letter-founder in Bartholomew Close and the brother of John James the architect. Nichols also erroneously attributes to Elinor a daughter Elizabeth born in 1689. Elinor James continued printing after she was widowed, declaring about 1715, 'I have been in the element of Printing above forty years'  (James, Mrs James's Advice to All Printers).

Between 1681 and 1716 Elinor James wrote, printed, and distributed more than ninety broadsides and pamphlets addressing political, religious, and commercial concerns. The fact that she either printed or oversaw the printing of her own works had consequences for their material form; she typically entitled her papers Mrs. James's Advice, Mrs. James's Vindication, and the like, and printed her name in huge letters at the top of her texts. (In fact James may never have 'written' her broadsides at all, but rather composed them directly at the printing press with type.) The papers are addressed to six monarchs, the houses of Lords and Commons, the lord mayor and aldermen of the City of London, and others, and they comment on national events such as the exclusion crisis, the revolution of 1688, the Act of Union, and the Jacobite risings of 1715. James petitioned Charles II against 'sins of the flesh', James II against promoting Catholicism, and William III against taking James II's crown, and her publications describe her apparent interviews with these kings. She also advised City of London leaders on issues ranging from mayoral elections to the enforcement of City by-laws and commented on trade issues such as the management of the East India and South Sea companies and the economic disadvantages of a free press. In her own time James was satirized as 'London City Godmother' (see, for instance, A Catalogue of Books to be Sold by Auction at the City-Godmother's in Mincing-Lane, n.d. [1702]).

James's best-known work, Mrs. James's Vindication of the Church of England (1687), provoked at least two rejoinders: the ironic An Address of Thanks, on Behalf of the Church of England, to Mris. James (1687), by an anonymous dissenter, and a verse broadside entitled Elizabeth Rone's Short Answer to Ellinor James's Long Preamble (1687). James responded to her critics in Mrs. James's Defence of the Church of England, in a Short Answer to the Canting Address (1687). Earlier that year the poet John Dryden referred to James in his preface to The Hind and the Panther. She responded, 'As for Mr. Dryden ... I do not know him, nor never read his Book, but am told he doth Abuse the Church of England, for which I blame him: For I count it not Wisdom for a Wit, to reflect on that he so lately own'd'  (James, Mrs James's Vindication, 2).

As the title of her paper Mrs. Elianor James's Speech to the Citizens of London at Guild-Hall (1705) suggests, James combined print petitioning with oral activism. Her papers allude to her public political activities at sites such as Guildhall, Whitehall, and Westminster, and her claims are often supported by external evidence. In November 1687 she disrupted a meeting at Grocers' Hall where a nonconformist minister was preaching before the lord mayor, and caused such a disturbance that Robert Spencer, earl of Sunderland, recorded the incident in a newsletter to a fellow peer. In December 1689 she was arrested, tried, and fined for 'distributing scandalous and reflecting papers' condemning William III  (Luttrell, 1.617). James wrote more than a dozen works addressing the revolution of 1688, and any one of these might have alarmed the authorities; in My Lords, I can Assure your Lordships (1689?), for instance, she urged the Lords to remain loyal to James II, while in This being your Majesty's Birth-Day (1689?) she informed William III, 'Not half the Nation thought You would have accepted of the Crown while the King your Father was alive.'

In 1702 James was physically assaulted by the Popish Plot informer Titus Oates. She had publicly provoked Oates by questioning his right to wear canonical garb, and he had responded by smacking her with his cane. Oates was found guilty of assault at the Westminster sessions and ordered to pay a 'considerable fine' but because he was already deeply in debt this was later reduced to 6 marks (about £4)  ('Proceedings Against Oates', repr. in Scarce and Valuable Tracts ... Lord Somers, 4, 1750, 420-22).

In 1710 James served as the executor of her husband's will (proved on 9 May 1710) and she chose to donate his extraordinary personal library of some 3000 books to Sion College. She also donated portraits of Charles I, Charles II, her husband, and herself. The last, labelled 'Eleonora Conjux Thomae James', shows her displaying her Vindication. James died some time before 13 July 1719 and was buried on 19 July, probably in St Dunstan-in-the-East, London.

James was among the most prolific and politically active women writers of the later Stuart period. A middle-class tradeswoman with a printing press in her own home, her works chronicling the national events of a tumultuous period are a unique resource for the recovery of popular female involvement in early modern political culture.

Paula McDowell 

Sources  P. McDowell, The women of Grub Street: press, politics and gender in the London literary marketplace, 1678-1730 (1998) + P. McDowell, ed., The early modern Englishwoman, essential works: Elinor James [forthcoming] + E. James, Mrs. James's vindication of the Church of England, in an answer to a pamphlet entituled, 'A new test of the Church of England's loyalty' (1687) + E. James, Mrs. James's defence of the Church of England, in a short answer to the canting address, &c. with a word or two concerning a Quakers good advice (1687) + E. James, Mrs. James's advice to all printers in general (c.1715); repr. in Nichols, Lit. anecdotes, 1.306-7 + An address of thanks, on behalf of the Church of England, to Mris. James (1687) + Nichols, Lit. anecdotes, 1.305-9 + The life and errors of John Dunton citizen of London, 2 vols. (1705); repr. (1969), 1.252-3 + W. Reading, The history of the ancient and present state of Sion-College near Cripplegate, London; and of the London-clergy's library there (1724) + N. Luttrell, A brief historical relation of state affairs from September 1678 to April 1714, 1 (1857), 617 + 'An account of the proceedings against Dr. Titus Oates ... July the 2d, 1702, for scandalizing and assaulting Mrs. Eleanor James', A collection of scarce and valuable tracts ... Lord Somers, 2nd edn, 4 (1814), 420-22 + A catalogue of books to be sold by auction at the City-Godmother's in Mincing Lane, on the 29th of May next, being the anniversary of the restoration of blessed memory [n.d.] + E. James, My Lords, I can assure your Lordships, that you are infinitely admir'd (1689?) + E. James, This being your majesty's birth-day, I thought no time more proper than this, to return you thanks (1689?) + E. James, Mrs. Elianor James's speech to the citizens of London, at Guild-Hall, relating to their new choice of parliament men (1705) + E. Rone, Elizabeth Rone's short answer to Ellinor James's long preamble, or, 'Vindication of the new test, &c.' (1687) + Report on the manuscripts of the marquis of Downshire, 6 vols. in 7, HMC, 75 (1924-95), vol. 1, pt 1, p. 276 + Newgate sessions book, CLRO, SM60 + indictment no. 30, 8 April 1702, LMA, MJ/SR no. 1987 + PROB 11/515, fols. 148v-149r [will of Thomas James] + J. Dryden, 'The hind and the panther', The works of John Dryden, ed. {}, 3: Poems, 1685-1692, ed. E. Miner and V. A. Dearing (1969), 122 + administration, TNA: PRO, PROB 6/95, fol. 166r [Elinor James] + registry of the bishop of London, GL, MS 10091/26 [marriage licence] + E. James, June the 21th, 1715. Mrs James's reasons, to the lords spiritual and temporal (1715) + R. H. D'Elboux and W. Ward, eds., The registers of St Dunstan in the East, London, pt 3, Harleian Society registers (1958), 86-7 + caveat books, LPL + A collection of scarce and valuable tracts ... Lord Somers, 4 (1750)
Likenesses  oils, c.1700, NPG