Financial difficulties forced them to move to New York, where Thomas started businesses importing fine woolen cloth, selling coal and investing in property.

He found the gentleman to be so objectionable that he immediately removed the name Boulter from his own signature and from that time forward was known simply as James Stokes.

[2] Stokes's younger brother, Josiah, worked for Anson Greene Phelps as a confidential clerk.

[3] Stokes provided funding for his father-in-law's Phelps, Dodge & Co. business during the 1837 financial crisis when the banks had suspended payments.

In 1839, he was in business with the firm of Stokes, Shapter & Walton, importing cloth, and living in England before returning to New York in 1841.

Stoke had business interests outside of Phelps, Dodge including the ownership of 38,000 acres of pine land in Michigan.

[3] After returning from England to New York in 1841, he built a house called Clifton Cottage on the grounds of Anson Phelps's 35-acre estate on the East River, situated between 29th and 31st Streets.

[10] Stokes took interest in several organisations including the Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor; Hospital for Ruptured and Crippled; New York Eye and Ear Infirmary; Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Greenwich Savings Bank.