Medieval manuscripts scholar and provost, King's College, Cambridge (1905-1918). James was the son of Herbert James (1822-1909), rector of Great Livermere in Suffolk (near Bury St. Edmunds) and Mary Emily Horton (1818-1899) daughter of Admiral Joshua Sydney Horton. James attended the private boarding school at Temple Grove in Surrey between 1873-76 and then Eton (1876-82). He received a scholarship for King's College, Cambridge in 1882.