After seven years' apprenticeship to a linen-draper in Poole, Dorset, he decided to become a preacher, and in 1802 he went to David Bogue's training institution at Gosport in Hampshire.

[1] A year and a half later, on a visit to Birmingham, his preaching was so highly esteemed by the congregation of Carrs Lane Independent chapel that they invited him to exercise his ministry amongst them; he settled there in 1805, and was ordained in May 1806.

In his autobiography Spurgeon wrote: "In an early part of my ministry, while but a lad, I was seized with an intense desire to hear Mr. John Angell James; and, though my finances were somewhat meagre, I performed a pilgrimage to Birmingham solely with that object in view.

The savour of that very sweet discourse abides with me to this day, and I shall never read the passage without associating therewith the quiet but earnest utterances of that eminent man of God."

[1] He published numerous books on practical subjects of the Christian life, including: The Anxious Inquirer, Pastoral Addresses, an Earnest Ministry, A Help to Domestic Happiness, Female Piety, The Christian Father's Present to His Children, The Young Man's Friend and Guide, and The Widow Directed to the Widow's God.

[1] He was also an ardent abolitionist, and is portrayed in the huge canvass depicting Thomas Clarkson's opening address at the world's first Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840, in the National Portrait Gallery, London.

In 1817 it was James who handed Bibles to John Williams (of Erromanga) and Robert Moffat, in the commissioning service which sent them off to their fields of labour.

In August 1859, at the ceremony for the laying of the foundation stone of The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, "Especially must I mention the name of that honoured father of all the Dissenting churches, the Rev.

[1] By special permission of the Home Secretary he was permitted to be interred in a vault beneath his pulpit in Carr's Lane Chapel, as had long been his wish.

Richard Keynes who became pastor of the Congregational church in Salisbury Street, Blandford Forum, where John Angell James had attended as a child.

Thomas Smith James also published The History of the Litigation and Legislation respecting Presbyterian Chapels and Charities in England and Ireland &c., 1867.

Part of this work was earlier issued as Lists and Classifications of Presbyterian and Independent Ministers, 1717–31, &c., 1866, an 'Addendum' [1868] dealt with the criticisms of John Gordon.