network of railways in the south of England) and later in 1823 he was adjudged bankrupt. The distractions caused by this, by his involvement in so many projects simultaneously, and by bouts of illness, tended to prevent James from personally bringing to fruition any of the railway projects he had helped to initiate. In 1824, George Stephenson, assisted by Padley, was appointed surveyor to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, largely utilising the route projected by James, and in the following year Stephenson was made engineer of the Canterbury and Whitstable, using James's least preferred route. James's visionary steam-worked Central Junction Railway emerged as the horse-worked Stratford and Moreton Tramway opened in 1826 with John Urpeth Rastrick as surveyor and Robert Stephenson senior (George's brother) in an engineering capacity. Waterways Although recognising that railways were the coming mode of transport, James inherited inland waterways interests from his father. 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. Later career In 1827 James moved to Bodmin in Cornwall primarily to improve the estates of Anna-Maria Agar of Lanhydrock. 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. Personal life 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. He married his first wife, Dinah Tarleton, in 1793 and they had eight children. Following her death in 1830, he married Elizabeth Butt, 36 years his junior, in 1832, and they had two more daughters. It was said of him that "though corpulent, his manners were elegant and easy." William James and his eldest son William Henry James (1796–1873) were patentees of a number of inventions related to the improvement of transport. Reputation 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