James Fleming (priest)

James Fleming (1830–1908) was an Irish clergyman of the Church of England, known as a public speaker and fund-raiser. A canon of York Minster, he became chaplain in ordinary to Queen Victoria and Edward VII, and was a close friend of the British royal family.

Born at Carlow on 26 July 1830, he was from a Scots-Irish background, the youngest of five children of Patrick Fleming, M.D., of Strabane, who had married in 1820 Mary, daughter of Captain Francis Kirkpatrick. From 1833 to 1836 he was in Jamaica, his father having become paymaster to the 56th Regiment; and on his father's death in 1838 his mother, who survived to September 1876, moved to Bath, Somerset. His two brothers, William and Francis, were sent to Sandhurst, but ultimately took orders; William, a traditional Protestant, died vicar of Christ Church, Chislehurst, in May 1900.

Fleming went to King Edward VI's Grammar School, Bath, in 1840, and to Shrewsbury School in 1846, under Benjamin Hall Kennedy. He was in the school cricket team, and won the Millington scholarship, matriculating on 15 November 1849 at Magdalene College, Cambridge. He graduated B.A. there in 1853, proceeding M.A. in 1857 and B.D. in 1864.

Ordained deacon in 1853 and priest in 1854, he was curate, first, of St. Stephen, Ipswich (1853–5), and then of St. Stephen, Lansdown, in the parish of Walcot, Bath (1855–9), with charge of the chapel of All Saints. His plain evangelical preaching attracted congregations.

Fleming started classes of instruction in elocution for working people in 1859, and was an advocate of total abstinence. In 1866 he was appointed by trustees to the incumbency of Camden church, Camberwell, formerly held by Henry Melvill, and in 1873 was presented by the Hugh Grosvenor, 3rd Marquess of Westminster to the vicarage of St. Michael, Chester Square. Admitted on 19 February 1874, he retained this living for the rest of his life, becoming chaplain to Grosvenor, by then Duke of Westminster, in 1875. During the period parochial schools and local churches increased and a convalescent home built at Birchington, for which a parishioner gave Fleming £23,500l. Outside his parish his main interests were Dr. Barnardo's Homes, the Religious Tract Society, of which he was an honorary secretary from 1880; and the Hospital Sunday Fund, to which his congregation made annual contributions.

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