He was a son of Thomas Bond of Probus in Cornwall. 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. 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, born in 1777.
3 John, born in 1779. He married Sophia, the daughter of Captain Thomas Smart.
4 Mary Lydia, born in 1780. She married Anthony Stokes.
5 Lydia Mary, born in 1781.
6 William Andrew, born in 1783. In 1805 he married Elizabeth Downer.
7 Frances. She married twice. Her first husband was ---- Dolling. She married secondly George Elwick Jennett.
8 Jemima, born in 1785. In 1812 she married George Pooke.
9 Nicholas, born in 1787.
10 Ann, who married John Nance of Worcester College, Oxford.
11 James Andrew, born in 1789.
12 John James, born in 1791.
13 Jane Stephanie, born in 1793. In 1816 she married Reverend Samuel Hill.

 

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 strocked 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.