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James lived in Budleigh Salterton for part of the time between 1848 and at least 1857.  He was very interested in fishing and sea fisheries and wrote a book with seventy-five woodcut illustrations called “The Sea-Fisherman: Comprising the Chief Methods of Hook and Line Fishing in the British and Other Seas..”(1), as well as other articles on the subject (2). 

He was born on the 26th December 1826 in Exeter (3) the son of James Carrall Wilcocks (4) and his wife Hannah (nee Good).  His father was a linen draper who was later a Land Tax Commissioner for Exeter (1836) and a Councillor for St. Petrock’s Ward (around 1848).  His father had lived at Duryard Park House in St. David’s Parish but moved to 1 Colleton Crescent (5) where it is likely his son grew up (6).  He was apparently the only legitimate son of his father who appears to possibly have had a rather colourful sex life (4). 

Son James married Eliza Seymour on 14th March 1850 in Purton, Wiltshire, and the couple came to live in Castle Cottage on Salterton Common and were listed in White’s Directory for 1850.  According to an earlier list of voters at the Devon County Records Office, James had had a lease on this cottage in 1848 (although he gave his abode as 11a High Street Exeter).  

At the time of the 1851 census his wife was undoubtedly pregnant as a “monthly nurse” was included in the household and a child Alice was born in the town that summer.  Judging by the birth places of his next five children, (St. Germains & Plymouth, between 1853 and 1858), he must have moved about, presumably in pursuit of information about fishing, and possibly rented out the Budleigh cottage.  He was still listed as the occupier of Castle Cottage in the 1857 edition of Billing’s Directory.  Census information tells us that by 1861 the family had moved to Guernsey but they had moved back to Gertrude Terrace, Littleham by 1871, before moving to Plymouth by 1881 and Shoreham by 1891.  

James died in Kingston Surrey in the autumn of 1899.  A third edition of his book was published that year and in its preface James wrote that he had included numerous reminiscences of his experiences at sea, having been an experienced fisherman off the coasts of England and Guernsey. 

Compiled and Researched by Roger Lendon, © 2011 

(1)Longmans Green & Co., London. 1868

(2)“The commercial sea fishes of Great Britain etc.” William Clowes & Sons Ltd., 13 Charing Cross Road 1884.

“Improved fishery harbour accommodation for Great Britain & Ireland” in Volume 9 of The Fisheries Literature. Prize Essays.

(3)Personal communication from Paul Wilcocks

(4)See “James Carrall Wilcocks” by Paul Wilcocks in The Devon Family Historian No. 135, pp8-9, 2010, and particularly, “Drapers extraordinary, part 1” by Gillian Selley in The Devon Historian Vol 80 pp 43-54   for information about his father and grandfather.

(5)Probate Register April 1874. Wilcocks James Carrall.

(6)1841 Census

136 BS-B-00052 Biography any