I think there is a chance that James has nothing to do with the Liverpool family. Mary would have been at home until she was 'of age' and was only 18 when she went to London, got married and sailed off to New Zealand. She probably travelled to London with James from Ayrshire, where they were probably both living at the time. When she says that her husband was from Dumfries, he had probably come from Dumfries to Ayrshire to get work, and had met Mary there. Handfasting marriages were still fashionable at the time in rural Scotland and so wedded.off they went to England to 'seek a fortune'. Finding that to secure their passage to NZ they needed to be legally married by English law they had a church wedding en-route (Birmingham), presummably by licence. Being discribed 'as of full age' holds little water as it was very difficult to prove age if you were in England and born in Scotland. But it seems likely they were of similar ages and so the age 20 in the passenger list is probably correct. So what you need is a James born in south-west Scotland circa 1819, son of a David Maxwell.
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