This article is part of a series of brief lifestories of the Champ family. James Champ, originally from Axminster, married Eliza Moody and settled in her hometown, Downton, Wiltshire. See project bibliography.

James Colmer Champ, son of George Champ and Hannah Colmer, was baptised in 1798 in Axminster, Devon. He was likely the namesake of his maternal grandfather, James Colmer of Uplyme.

The town of Axminster overlooks the River Axe, home to a variety of native wildlife. Native fauna include otters, water voles, kingfishers and mayflies. The riverside also supports rare grasses.

See a recent photo of modern Axminster below:

Axminster’s population, including the town, was around 2,100 when James Champ was born. His father, George Champ, was a shoemaker. As a boy, James likely attended the local school, which would have taught around 100 pupils at his time. James Champ had blue eyes and a fair complexion, and in adulthood was of average height.

Visits to Uplyme?

In his early days, James may have occasionally visited his grandfather in Uplyme, a walk of around 80 minutes (3.8 miles) from Axminster. His grandmother had passed away in 1772, when James’ mother was about two years old.

James Champ’s grandfather may have showed him the old watermill at Lyme Regis, believed to date from 1340. They likely also visited the nearby coastline, now famously known as Jurassic Coast for its fossils. Although fossils were less-understood in the early 1800s, there were already collectors. Interestingly, Mary Anning, the famous fossil-hunter who identified an Ichthyosaur at age 12, was born in nearby Lyme Regis in 1799. She happened to be around the same age as James Champ.

As far as we know, James Champ never became a paleontologist. Nor did he seem to follow his father’s occupation of shoemaking. But James Champ became skilled both as a sawyer and as a blacksmith. It seems that he would switch occupations depending on how business was going at the time. Knowing two trades was certainly an advantage. Was smithery a creative hobby that James enjoyed, but didn’t provide as much work as sawing did?

Starting a Family

At the age of 20, James Champ married Eliza Moody in Plumstead, London. Eliza was from Downton, and so not long after their first son was born, the new family settled in Eliza’s hometown. They would eventually have a total of ten children: William (1818), Clarissa (1822), Edmund (1826), George (1830), Catherine (1832), Arthur (1835), Fanny (1837), Charles (1839), Eliza (1843) and James (1846).

However, James Champ’s reputation was marred by a criminal history. In 1823, he had managed to escape from the House of Correction at Devizes. He was afterwards captured and transferred to Fisherton Gaol. The following year, he was again sent to the Devizes House of Correction for allegedly stealing an elm board and two shafts of wheat from a cart.

In 1829, James Champ’s wife and sister, both named Eliza, were sentenced to three months of hard labour on the charge of stealing leather. James and his father, George Champ, who was a shoemaker, were also brought to prison but were afterwards acquitted. Their behaviour in prison was noted as orderly.

At the time, James and his wife Eliza had three young children at home, the eldest aged only around 10. Eliza may have been pregnant with their fourth child, George, who was born about 1830. They later had a daughter named Catherine in late 1832, however she died in March the following year, at the age of four months.

Voyage to Canada

Times were especially rough in Downton at this time. The harvest had been poor for three consecutive years from 1828 to 1830. In 1832, an outbreak of cholera infected the town. At the time, around 50 to 100 men were unemployed. The parish was spending an average of almost £4,000 a year on poor relief from 1833 to 1835.

In an attempt to alleviate the situation, the parish decided to pay for some of the population to immigrate to Quebec, Canada. Around 220 from Downton were named on the passenger list, including the Champ family.

The ship that transported the immigrants to Canada was the King William. This vessel was built for 230 passengers. Those on the passenger list amounted to 220 from Downton and 59 from neighbouring parishes. A crew of twenty men assisted the captain. A surgeon was also onboard.

To prevent passengers from changing their mind about the voyage, it was decided that the ship would leave as soon as everyone had boarded. They departed on the 7th of April, 1836. The journey was risky. In 1834, only two years earlier, 731 people had perished in shipwrecks on their way to Canada. It is worthy of note that the Champ family’s son George seems to have disappeared from the records back in Downton. Did he perish on the way to Canada?

Arrival in Quebec

When the passengers arrived in Quebec, they may have been disappointed by the sight of their fellow immigrants. Pinnock, one of the leading men on the ship, wrote in May 1835: “..complaints which have been received from Lower Canada of the great distress and sickness which has occured in that province, in a great measure owing to the immense inundation of Emigrants who arrive every year at Quebec and Montreal in the short space of a few months, and who are in most cases landed from crowded ships without means of subsistence.”

Many immigrants would arrive ill due to the serious lack of hygeine onboard the ships. However, it seems that the King William was much better managed. The ship reached Quebec the week of May 28, 1836. A. C. Buchanan wrote that the immigrants were all well, and added: “I advanced each head of family here, sufficient to purchase them some fresh provisions and paid them the balance on their reaching Montreal, – having secured them passage to Upper Canada.”

Return to England

The Champ family soon returned to Downton. On December 19, 1837, James Champ was prosecuted for non-repayment of funds intended to enable him to immigrate. The Devizes and Wiltshire Gazette reported: “On Tuesday last, before the county Magistrates, the overseers of Downton summoned George Forder and James Cham [Champ], to show cause why they should not repay certain monies which had been advanced to them, £7 to the former, £35 to the latter, to enable them to emigrate to Canada. They both pleaded their total inability to reimburse the parish the expenses to which they had been put…

“[Champ] stated that he went as far as Kingston [Canada], when his eyes became so bad that he was totally unfit for work. The Bench told them that they were liable, under the Act of Parliament, to repay their money; and that their wages, as soon as they got work, would be attached, so that part of their earnings might be applied to the liquidation of their respective debts to the parish.”

Interestingly, George Forder later married James Champ’s daughter Clarissa. Read about Clarissa’s step-son Edmund Forder here.

Sadly preceeding the above court case, the Champ family buried their four-month-old daughter Fanny on the 27th of November, 1837.

Later Years

By 1848, it seems that the family was struggling financially, as the year earlier James Champ had put up for auction their land, including their house and other buildings. In late 1848, when high bailiff Shergold came to levy their goods as ordered by the court, the family attacked him.

It seems that the parents had been setting a poor example for their children, as the three eldest sons, William, Edmund and Arthur, ranging in ages from about 13 to 30, joined their parents in assaulting Shergold. In consequence, they were all taken to court and were fined a total of 100 shillings. As they didn’t have the money to pay, the court ordered that their property be seized. The two sons Edmund and Arthur were also sentenced to time in prison, six weeks for the former and two for the latter.

James Champ later died in 1851 at the age of 53. Some of his children were still young at the time. The youngest was about 5 years old.

James Champ’s children also lived interesting lives. See the links to articles below: