A son of Thomas Bond of Probus in Cornwall, he was baptized at Probus on 6th April 1750, died on 18th September 1826, and was buried on 23rd September 1826. He went to Exeter College, Oxford, matriculating on 17th May 1770. As vicar of Ashford, in Kent, he married Elizabeth, daughter of James Andrew, who had been vicar of Ashford before him, on 15th March 1774. Elizabeth was buried 4th August 1804. They had children:

1 Eliza Susanna, born on 6th September 1775, died on 20th August 1832. She married Reverend Stephen Long Jacob.
2 John William, baptized 23rd June 1777, buried 12th June 1778.
3 John, baptized 25th May 1779. He married Sophia, the daughter of Captain Thomas Smart.
4 Mary Lydia, baptized 8th December 1780, buried 27th July 1781.
5 Lydia Mary, baptized 8th December 1781. She married Anthony Stokes.
6 William Andrew, born 10th March 1783, baptized 8th April of that year. In 1805 he married Elizabeth Downer.
7 Frances, baptized 17th August 1784.She married twice. 1st James Adam Dolling. 2nd George Elwick Jennett.
8 Jemima Elizabeth, baptized 6th September 1785. On 5th March 1812 she married George Anthony Pooke, widower.
9 Nicholas, born in 1787, buried 19th February of that year..
10 Ann, baptized 22nd October 1788; she married John Nance of Worcester College, Oxford.
11 James Andrew, baptized 14th December 1789, buried 17th February 1790.
12 John James, baptized 8th December 1791.
13 Jane Stephanie, baptized 8th November 1793. On 23rd March 1816 she married Reverend Samuel Hill.

He was inducted as curate of Shaddoxhurst and Orlestone. Two years later he was ordained priest and became vicar of Ashford. In 1786 he was licensed to the pertual curcacy of Bilsington, worth at the time £30 a year; he held both livings until his death in 1826. In 1790 he started a Church Account Book for Bilsington, which is most informative. He also innovated the singing of Psalms. It was a most up-to-date fashion in churches of the 1790s.

The Bond, Andrews and Nance families were very much involved in this period in Ashford society. They all held property in and around Ashford as is demonstrated by entries in the Ashford court rolls, transcribed and placed on line by Arthur Ruderman. In 1791, for example, James Bond was occupier of a meadow of 18 acres called Bigger Shaffradge and New Marsh, both moieties of which had previously been owned by his father-in-law James Andrews. His will had been declared at the Ashford Court on 17th October 1777, and he had left a moiety of the premises to John Bond, his grandson, son of his daughter Elizabeth. John's father James was his guardian. A court held on 25th May 1803 informs us that John Bond, by then a clerk, had been admitted to the premises on 21st October 1791, aged 13. His father occupied the property. He was then admitted to the other moiety for the term of his life, which he surrenders to his father James. On 12th August 1805 they all surrender both moieties to Robert Montague Wilmot, doctor of physick. On the same day, at the same court James Bond is admitted to both moieties, as also to meadow land called Little Broon containing 5 1/4 acres of land. It was surrendered by both conditionally to secure a mortgage of £600 at 5% interest. James was patently in need of money. Ann Martyr pays £800 and is admitted, so Bond could redeem his mortgage.He still held a mortgage in 1818, the total mortgage by then having risen to £1400 and the property was ultimately surrendered to William Deedes of Sandling Esquire.

I was told an amusing anecdote by one of Ashford's churchwardens some years ago. It appears that James had an extension built to the vicarage, which incorporated a wine cellar. A keen puveyor of port and wines (as have been many members of the family past and present), he stocked his cellar well, and thereafter entries in the parish registers degenerated to such an extent, that ultimately a curate had to continue them. How true this is I don't know.

Elizabeth died after three days of illness on 8th August 1804.

Sources:

Pedigree compiled by Dr T.G.B.Howe
Ashford Court Rolls, Kent Archaelogical Society
Jacob MSS