[3] After school, he started a legal career, first at the Christchurch and Ashburton offices of Messrs Wilding and Lewis.

[2][4] He married Margaret Lucy England on 18 January 1900 at the Wesleyan Church in St Albans.

Their relatives E.M. Deakin (Ashburton) and Harold Edmund Flesher were the witnesses to the marriage ceremony.

[5] Flesher's political career began in either 1891[6] or 1893,[2] when he was elected onto the Richmond Ward of Christchurch City Council.

[9] Flesher was involved in a great number of organisations, and held important roles with many of those:[2][4] In 1871, James Flesher's father William (born 1837) bought a 25 acres (100,000 m2) site of the Avebury farm from Dr John Seager Gundry for £500.

The house became the Cora Wilding Youth Hostel in 1965 and the land became a public reserve (Avebury Park).

It was opened in 2002 by Prime Minister Helen Clark and serves as the Avebury House Community Centre.