At some point prior to Treasure Planet, Leland married Sarah and sometime later had a boy named Jim on the planet Montressor. When Jim was still young, his father left the planet for unknown reasons leaving his wife and son without support.
After he left, Sarah had since had problems with raising Jim who had grown into a carefree, angsty, and problematic teenager due to lacking a role model.
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His fate differs between the film and the book of which it is based on; dying of illness.
Although his name is not mentioned in the movie, it is shown in the Treasure Planet art book that it is Leland Hawkins.
According to notes in Treasure Planet: A Voyage of Discovery, Leland was nineteen and Sarah possibly seventeen when Jim was born. The addendum that he arrived "sooner than either parent planned" could imply that Jim was conceived earlier in Sarah and Leland's marriage than expected, or was the result of indiscretion, a love child, and the premise for the marriage. While it lends itself to both predicaments, the latter can be corroborated by the note that Leland was "immature and not ready for marriage" nor "prepared to raise a family"; he "felt trapped in the commitment that being a part of a family requires and couldn't handle the responsibility of raising a child." It's possible Leland married Sarah out of obligation or was forced; either way, to salvage her honor (if 18th century tenets apply in TP's world, being pregnant and unmarried would've condemned her the same as in real society).
Although it's not revealed why he left Montresur the film implies it's because he felt ashamed and embarrassed that he wasn't a good husband and father in the hints that Jim told Silver his father was taking off and never coming back. And also in the I'm Still Here scenes where he gives Jim a pat on the head without giving him a glance or trying to acknowledge him and where Jim wakes up the morning his father leaves and sees his mom crying at the table.
