▶Date of birth:  10 August 1840        Place of birth: Bruton, Somerset

▶Father:  John Couzens     Mother: Elizabeth Margaret Lucas

▶Spouse(s): (1) Anne Penny Clarke; (2) Eliza Balance Hines (also Balance, Lucas)     Date(s) of marriage: (1) 15 August 1865; (2) 2Q 1902      Place(s) of marriage: (1) Independent Chapel, Bruton, Somerset; (2) Taunton

▶Occupation: Independent minister

▶Lifestory: James was the son of John Couzens, a butcher and later farmer, and his wife Elizabeth. He attended the Western Theological College at Plymouth, and was appointed Minister of the Congregational Chapel in Totnes, Devon 1865-71. In 1865 he married Anne Penny Clarke, and they had three sons and three daughters. In 1878 he preached at North Place Church, in Cheltenham. From 1879-81 he and his family lived at 9 Wellington Square, Cheltenham, where he was described as an “Independent Minister without Charge”. By 1886 he had retired back to the West Country, living first at Villa Ventura, Trull, near Taunton, and later moving into Taunton itself, where he lived in retirement for the remainder of his life. His wife died in 1902, and later that year he remarried, at Taunton, to Eliza Balance Hine; he was her third husband. He died in Taunton in 1921, at the age of eighty.

▶Moved to Pittville from:  Totnes, Devon      Moved from Pittville to: Taunton, Somerset

▶Date of death:  19 January 1921      Place of death: Elm Grove, Taunton

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes:        ID: 6452

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden