William James (13 June 1771 – 10 March 1837) was an English lawyer, surveyor, land agent and pioneer promoter of rail transport.

[5] James's father was a wealthy man and a local Justice of the Peace, but the share price collapse that accompanied the panic of 1797 led to increased financial pressures for the family and the solicitors' practice.

[7] In 1798 the younger William James started a new career as a land agent, initially managing the estate of the Dewes family of Wellesbourne Hall, Warwickshire.

[11] It seems likely[12] that in 1808 James attended the demonstration running of Richard Trevithick's steam locomotive Catch me who can in London; certainly at this time he began to consider the long-term development of this means of transport, although he recognised that something more durable than cast iron would be needed for the rails themselves.

[13] In 1821 he made several trips to inspect railway developments in the Northumberland coalfield and met George Stephenson of Killingworth Colliery, his son Robert and the ironfounder William Losh.

He was on the managing committee of the Stratford-upon-Avon Canal, seeing it through to completion in 1816, including the money-saving proposal to construct the Edstone Aqueduct in cast iron; and he also held shares in the Upper Avon Navigation.

[9] James was a freemason, a member of the Royal Society of Arts, and, during the Napoleonic Wars, had been an officer in the Warwickshire Regiment of Yeomanry Cavalry.

[23] Partly because he was never acknowledged by George Stephenson (although the younger Robert and other engineers remained sympathetic), James received little recognition for his work and written memorials to Parliament for financial help both by himself around 1826 and, after his death, on behalf of his children in 1846 were abandoned.