Thomas James was born in 1799 in English Bicknor where he continued to live and worked as a tailor. On 9 April 1827, at the age of 27, he was convicted of the theft of one sheep owned by Richard Bennett and was sentenced to death commuted to be transportation for life. After a spell on a hulk, he was transferred to the Florentia which set sail for New South Wales on 15 September 1827 and arrived on 3 January 1828.