James Stallings was born in Nansemond, Virginia in about 1705. Stallings became a resident of Perquimans Precinct, North Carolina by 1728 and in 1740 he began amassing large tracts of land along the Neuse River in Craven County. When Johnston County formed from Craven County in 1746, Stallings became one of the largest landholders in the new county and owned many enslaved people. He died in Johnston in about 1786.