James Tibbord

James Tibbord

Portrayed by Damian Lewis
Full Name	James Tibbord
Associated Noble House(s)	None
Date of Birth	October, 1772
Father	Henry Tibbord
Father's Rank/Occupation	Grocer
Mother	Fanny Tibbord nee Phelps
Mother's Rank/Occupation	Merchant's daughter
Town Residence	9 Gracechurch Street
Occupation	Servant

'James Tibbord is employed by Susannah Hutchinson and her brother Benjamin, who live at 9 Gracechurch Street. He is played by Amy.

Family

• Father: Henry Tibbord, a grocer, b. 1748 [missing, 1810]
• Mother: Fanny Phelps, daughter of a merchant, b. 1753
• Brothers: Edward, born 1771; Roger, b. 1780, d. 21 October 1805 at Trafalgar
• Sisters: Becky, b. 1774; Margaret, b. 1776, d 1777]; Betsey, b. 1777; Lucy, b. 1779; Harriet, b. 1782; Ellen, b. 1784; Mary, b. 1785

Background

A second son in a large, working-class family, Jim has yet to find his place in the world. Though he had some indifferent formal education, most of his smarts have come through experience. He grew up the smaller of the older Tibbord brothers, a disadvantage which he learned to overcome only after being on the worse end of a series of fights among the neighborhood boys. With practice, he excelled at using his wits rather than his fists when these situations arose. Consequently, he earned a reputation as a coward, but he consoled himself with the knowledge of his superior intelligence. Unfortunately, his considerable capabilities have not translated into worldly wisdom, nor has he been a lucky man. His father finally removed him from the grocery after repeated reminders not to rearrange the goods for sale by size, color, shape, price, quantity, or country of origin went unheeded. In all competitions with his brother, James seems to be second-best. As an adult, he has dabbled in banking, clerical work, business ventures, and a variety of other forms of employment, including serving as a Bow Street Runner for a time. Each career has been a dead-end, for one reason or another. Currently, he assists Edward in the management of their missing father’s grocery. It is not a job that offers much satisfaction, in part because Edward, though less than two years James’s senior, fails to treat him as an equal. In his younger days, Jim experienced several brief romances, but both women left him, and he has since become a confirmed bachelor and appears content to remain so, throwing himself into his work instead.