No. 172 James Henry Stark
Stark’s works included:
Stark’s Illustrated Bermuda Guide &c. (1884).
Stark’s History and Guide to the Bahama Islands &c. (1891)
Stark’s Guide-book and History of British Guiana &c. (1895) , with James Rodway
Stark’s Jamaica Guide (Illustrated) &c. (1898)
Stark’s History and Guide to Barbados and the Caribbee Islands &c. (1903)
Illustrated History of Boston Harbor &c. (1880)
Antique Views of ye Towne of Boston. (1882)
The British and Dutch in South Africa. (1900)
History of the Old Blake House, and a Brief Sketch of the Dorchester Historical Society. (1907)
Places in Dorchester to Visit During Old-home Week, July 28 to August 3, 1907. (1907)
The Loyalists of Massachusetts and the Other Side of the American Revolution. (1910)
The following is from Proceedings of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Supplement to April number 1915, lxii-lxiv
James Henry Stark of Dorchester, Mass., a resident member since 1887, was born at Mitcham, co. Surrey, England, 6 July 1847, the son of John Henry and Mary Elizabeth Ann (A’Court) Stark, and died in Boston 30 August 1919.
Mr. Stark was of Scottish ancestry. His great-grandfather, James Stark, came into England from Scotland in the eighteenth century, and settled at Shepton-Mallett, Co. Somerset, where he died 2 December 1829. He left ten children, one of whom, Joseph, born in 1797, came to Boston about 1820 and died there in 1879. He owned a house on Congress Street, and was the last resident of that street. James Stark’s eldest son, James, was born at Taunton, co. Somerset, 24 September 1785, and died at Shepton-Mallett 29 October 1843. He married Mary Willmott, second daughter of Abraham Willmott of Pilton, Co. Somerset, and was the father of four children. His youngest child, John Henry Stark, father of the subject of this memoir, was born at Shepton-Mallett 4 June 1823, and died at Savin Hill, Dorchester, Mass, 19 February 1885. He married Mary Elizabeth Ann A’Court, who was born at Bridgwater, Co. Somerset, England, 28 February 1824, and died at Shepton-Mallett 30 August 1849, daughter of Thomas Cook and Mary Ann (Davis) A’Court. John Henry Stark was a graduate of Queen’s College, Cambridge, and was a teacher of languages.
Until he was nine years of age James Henry Stark was brought up by his maternal grandfather, Thomas Cook A’Court, at Shepton-Mallett, where he attended a primary school. In 1856 his father, who had taken up his abode in the United States, went back to England for him and brought him to this country. In that same year he was admitted to the Hawes Branch Grammar School in South Boston, and afterwards attended the Lincoln School and later, for a short time, the Boston Latin School.
In 1864 he left school and began to learn the trade of stereotyping and electrotyping. In 1870 he went into business for himself at the corner of Water and Congress Streets, where the post office now stands, but in the great fire of 1872 the building was blown up and Mr. Stark lost nearly everything. He then had recourse to his favorite pastime, yachting, and for two and a half years gave his time to this sport, both in summer and in winter. In the winter of 1873-4 he and two companions made a memorable cruise, sailing from Boston to Florida and return in the Crosby, a 26-foot catboat. The next winter he sailed with a party of adventurers in a 35-ton schooner to South America, and explored French and Dutch Guiana in search of gold, discovering the first gold in the latter colony. On his return he went into business again, and opened a stereotype and electrotype foundry at 171 Devonshire Street, Boston. In 1877, in association with William H. Mumler, the inventor of the photo-electrotype process, he established the Photo-Electrotype Company, which was among the first companies in this country to make engraved plates by photography. He was the president of this company, and after Mr. Mumler’s death in 1884 continued in this business until 1900, when he sold his interest and engaged in the real-estate business, with offices at 17 Milk Street, Boston.
Mr. Stark’s interest in yachting was shown not only by the cruises which he made but also by his activity in founding yacht clubs. In 1868 he was one of the founders of the South Boston Yacht Club, the second yacht dub to be organized in Massachusetts, and was elected commodore on his return from the Florida cruise. In 1879, when he moved from South Boston to Savin Hill, Dorchester, he organized the Savin Hill Yacht Club, of which he was commodore for several years. He was a founder also of the Rock Hill Yacht Club, and became its commodore in 1913. He travelled much. Almost every winter in the twenty years following 1884 was spent by him in the West Indies, and on one journey he visited Panama and the ports of Central America, returning to Boston via California and the West. He went to Labrador one summer, and he made many voyages to Europe, travelling in the British Isles and on the Continent.
Mr. Stark was at one time vice-president of the Dorchester Historical Society, which he had helped to organize, and of the Victorian Club and president of the British Charitable Society and of the British-American Association. He was a member also of the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada. He was a. Republican, and belonged to the Masonic fraternity.
He was the author of several guide books and historical works, among them the “Stranger’s Guide to Boston,” 1881, “Antique Views of Boston,” 1882 (second edition, 1900), “History of Boston Harbor,” “History of and Guide to the West Indies” (a series of six volumes, dealing with Bermuda, the Bahama Islands, the Caribbean Islands, Jamaica, and British Guiana), “The British and Dutch in South Africa” (a pamphlet concerning the Boer War), and “The Loyalists of Massachusetts.” In this last-mentioned book he attacked the motives and character of the leading Revolutionary patriots in Massachusetts, and brought down upon himself a storm of opposition from native Americans, especially from members of patri-otic and historical societies.
He married in St. Matthew’s Church, South Boston, 23 December 1876, Kate Manton, daughter of William S. Manton of Birmingham, England, by his wife, Jane (Mitchell) of Kingston, Canada. Mrs. Stark survives her husband, together with three daughters, Jane Evelyn Stark, Elizabeth Isabel, wife of Dr. Morton Snow, and Mildred Manton, wife of Alfred Vinal Kidd.