 He had plans to develop the ports of Devoran and Truro and build a railway from Fowey to Padstow, none of which came to fruition under his management.Following a winter journey by mail coach he contracted pneumonia of which he died at Bodmin early in 1837.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.