Description: James Orange was most well known as the author of one of the classic English history books (published in 1840; 'The History of Nottingham'. His title page reads thus: 'History and Antiquities of Nottingham in which are exhibited the various institutions, manners, customs, arts and manufactures of the people; their social and domestic habits; civil and political conditions under every successive government, from their conquest by the Normans, Danes, Saxons, Romans and early British Independency, down to the present time.' and indeed the book is an early study in social history, including such topics as conditions in a workhouse, rather than the usual stuffy victorian political histories. The Rev James Orange was baptised in Chesterfield, Derbyshire on 13 April 1800, his ancestors were Huguenots who had settled in Chesterfield in the 17th century. By the 1830's he had become a minister in Nottingham. He was a minister who was concerned with the working conditions of his parishioners, particularly framework knitters and in 1841, after publication of his 'History of Nottingham', he wrote 'A plea for the poor' in which he introduce the idea of allotment gardens for the working man, and succeeded in allotment being created at Chilwell and Forest Grove. In the last years of his life he lived in Mile End Road, London. He died on the 6th of January 1878 aged 78 and was buried at the Central Cemetery.