John Angell James (1785–1859) was an English preacher and author whose ministry within the Independent (Congregational) tradition profoundly influenced 19th-century nonconformist Christianity. Born in Blandford Forum, Dorset, to a draper father and a devout mother, he faced early hardship when his father’s business failed, leading him to work as a draper’s assistant at 11. Converted at 14 under Rev. William Jay’s preaching in Southampton, James began teaching Sunday school and felt called to ministry, training at David Bogue’s academy in Gosport from 1802 to 1805. Ordained in 1806, he took the pastorate of Carr’s Lane Chapel in Birmingham, where he served for 54 years, marrying Sarah Burcot in 1807, with whom he had two sons who died in infancy. James’s ministry transformed Carr’s Lane from a struggling congregation of 200 into a thriving church of over 2,000, earning him a reputation as one of England’s foremost pulpit orators—Charles Spurgeon called him “the most apostolic man I ever knew.” His practical, earnest sermons, often addressing domestic life and personal piety, were complemented by his prolific writing, including bestsellers like The Anxious Inquirer After Salvation (1834) and The Christian Father’s Present to His Children (1824), which saw massive circulation in Britain and America. A champion of missions and education, he co-founded the Evangelical Alliance and Spring Hill College (now Mansfield College, Oxford). Widowed in 1840, he remarried Emma Clark in 1841 and died in 1859, leaving a legacy as a pastor whose blend of eloquence, compassion, and evangelical zeal shaped Victorian religious life.