| The Strange Case of the Kimberley Diamonds |
|
|
|
Page 1 of 3 The Curse of the Kimberley Diamonds John Henry James was the youngest son of William ‘Kimberley’ James, a man originally from St Just in Penwith, whose family had worked in the mines around Levant for many generations. Along with his friend Francis Oates, William James left Cornwall to work in the mines of Michigan and later South Africa where Oates was already well established in the mines. Whilst Oates remained in South Africa, working his way up to be Chairman of the Board of De Beers, William James came back to Cornwall and settled in Redruth. He married Jane Pascoe, daughter of miner Richard Pascoe at St Euny Church, Redruth on March 16, 1882 and the census of 1891 sees them living at Nancothan House, Back Lane, Redruth with children William, 8, twins Edward and James aged 2 and daughter Jane, 6 months. He is described as ‘unemployed, living on his own means’. Yet the status of unemployed did not last long and he became involved again in mining, becoming manager of the Wheal Basset and South Frances United Mines. This was a time when Cornwall’s mines were all but gone and in later years he described his employment here as “twenty six years of misery”.  William James junior with his wife, Minnie taken just after their wedding and just before he was killed in Marriot’s Shaft. He admitted that he could see the end of the mine after only three or four years working there but was persuaded that if he went the mine would most certainly close; so he stayed, until it inevitably did close over 20 years later. Tragedy followed the family. His daughter Jane died at the age of eleven in 1902, his eldest son William was killed by a rock fall in Marriott’s Shaft at Basset Mine in 1906, and one of the twins, Edward, was killed in 1917, when his ship the SS Redesmere was sunk by a German U Boat. William James died in 1921, and soon after that, Edward’s twin brother Richard emigrated to Canada, leaving the widowed Jane with her daughter Lizzie and grandson alone at Nancothan House. |
|||||