Birth seems to be registered as James Richard Geyden at West Ham, an area that included Walthamstow. In the 1851 census he is recorded as James Gaydon but in 1871 he is James G R Roberts. (In 1867 he married and in 1869 he failed in business). By the 1901 census he is James R Roberts (Tailor and outfitter of Great Malvern, Worcs) and in 1911 he becomes James Richard Geydon-Roberts (Boarding House proprietor in Churchstanton, Somerset).

In 1881 census, James was lodging in Sherborne, Dorset with Henry Stubbings, a master boot maker. James was a tailor’s cutter (39, born Walthamstow). James’s wife and children were in Lympston, Devon for the census.

In White’s History, Gazetteer & Directory of Essex of circa 1848, there is a tailor named Geyden Robert in Wood St, Walthamstow — probably James's father who was a tailor also.

In the White’s Directory of 1863, there is a Geyden James tailor of Church End, Walthamstow.

In October 1879 a John (or Jonathan) Geydon (or Geyden) of Walthamstow, born 1831 (son of James Geydon—a small farmer of Church Hill, Walthamstow), was convicted of murder at the Old Bailey and sentenced to death. This could have been a reason for the hyphenation of the surname, and possibly a reason for leaving Walthamstow. This death record suggests Jonathon Geydon’s sentence may have been commuted and that he died while a guest of HM at Parkhurst.