With his tall, skinny build, Jamie looks incredibly gawky, but despite his appearance, he is not clumsy. While not exceptionally graceful, he doesn’t trip over his feet or drop things on a regular basis. He dresses well, and takes care with his appearance. While his clothing is slightly out of fashion back home, it is months, if not years ahead of that of those in Coalchapel. His British accent serves to make him stand out even more in America. He’s fair skinned, and because he works in doors, he’s extremely pale, and every time he spends more than a few hours outside in the sun he tends to end up getting a bad sunburn.

James looks like what he is, a young intellectual young man who works with his mind, not his hands. In the months since he left England, his brown hair has grown out, hanging down around his jaw. He typically tucks it back around his ears, rather than getting it cut as often as he would prefer, in an effort to save money. There’s something appealing about him, for all of his awkwardness, he comes across as harmless and sweet in a lost puppy sort of way.

In the months since James left England, headed for America, James' funds have begun to run low, and while his clothing has become slightly threadbare, he still takes pains to look as nice as he can given his limited means. Once he finds gainful employment James will update his wardrobe, to a manner befitting his profession if not his title.

James grew up with his older brother Henry, who constantly picked on him. The two brothers were not close in the slightest, in fact, his brother hates him for being born, because their mother died giving birth to him. Compounded by the fact that James had freedom that Henry lacks as the eldest son, who is expected to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Due to all the bullying that he endured as a child both at the hands of his older brother and as a student at school, James tends to be quiet and withdrawn, struggling with showing his emotions. James has never known the love of his mother and seldom saw his father. He was raised primarily by Moira Fitzgibbon, his young Irish nanny until he was sent away to school when he was six.

Despite, or perhaps because of, his unhappy upbringing, and the bullying that he endured during his schooling, James is a good-natured man who loves nothing better than to lose himself in the pages of one of his beloved books. When he moves into town, he arrives with three trunks, two of which were filled with his favorite books. He's a long way from everything he knows, and is understandably afraid. But since he's nearly broke, he knows his options are limited and he's determined not to fail.

James is the second son of Duke Edward Vaughn and his wife Katherine. He has an older brother named Henry, and despite the fact that they have no other siblings, the two brothers are not close. Raised in his family’s estate in the countryside just outside of the city of Northampton, James’ early life was an exceeding unhappy one. Henry resents James because their mother died giving birth to the younger brother and also because James was a potential rival for their father’s money and title.

When he was six years old, James was sent away to start his education at Eton. For the next ten years, James lived at Eton, save for the holidays when he came back home, to face his father’s indifference and the torment that Henry always put him through. Despite the teasing from the other boys at school, James thrived academically during his time at Eton. He loved to learn, and with his near-perfect memory, he retained most of what he read, allowing him to do extremely well in school.

The ease with which James mastered his studies and the high regard that his teachers held him in, didn’t do much to endear James to his older brother or his fellow classmates. The other boys shunned James at best, and more than a few bullied him, both verbally and physically. The bullies were smart enough to keep the attacks to fairly minor stuff, pinches, and bruises that James could keep hidden under his clothes. Like the other boys at the school, James lived by a strict code that forbade telling the teachers about the abuse.

James also excelled in art, drawing, and painting, which didn't help to endear him to his fellow classmates. It did with one of his teachers, Peter Davidson who encouraged him to pursue his talent for art. But there were rumors that there was more between them than that of teacher and student. It didn't take long for the administrators to act on them and dismiss Mr. Davidson. But the rumors remained and most of the students were half convinced that James had been in a relationship with the fired teacher. This was not true, however.

Given the apathy, Henry has for him, and their father’s indifference towards his younger son, James avoided going home whenever possible, preferring the lonely solitude of holidays spent at school to that of holidays spent with his family. When their father died, and Henry inherited the title, lands, and money, taking their father’s place as the head of the family, James quickly realized that his hopes of finishing his legal studies at Cambridge were over, Henry would never pay for him to pursue his dream of becoming a solicitor. Taking the small inheritance left to him in their father’s will he set out to make a new life for himself.

Life on the frontier is going to come as a great shock for James, given the way of life that he left behind in England. He will take refuge should there be a gunfight when he's around. But he's not a coward and will risk life and limb to protect women and children from harm. James has had limited experience with women, his nanny being the only woman he ever really knew. He is still a virgin having been too shy and too broke to consider visiting a prostitute. James arrived in Kalispell in the hopes that the education he does have will enable him to find employment rather than completing against professionals who did finish their education.