Sir James Stirling, 1st Baronet

Sir James Stirling, 1st Baronet (1739–1805) was a Scottish banker and Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

Sir James Stirling, dressed as Lord Provost, with a view of Edinburgh Tolbooth behind
The grave of Sir James Stirling, Greyfriars Kirkyard

Life

Born in 1740 or early in 1741, he was the son of Alexander Stirling, cloth merchant in Edinburgh, by his wife Jane, daughter of James Muir of Lochfield, Perthshire. In early life he went to the West Indies as clerk to Archibald Stirling of Keir, a planter there (great-uncle of Sir William Stirling-Maxwell); and not long afterwards he was appointed, through Stirling's influence, secretary to Sir John Dalling, the governor of Jamaica.[1]

Having acquired a fortune in the West Indies, Stirling returned to Edinburgh, and became partner in the banking house of Mansfield, Ramsay, & Co. On the town council of Edinburgh in 1771, he filled the office of treasurer in 1773–4, and was three times chosen lord provost, in 1790, 1794, and 1798. For his conduct during the reform riots in 1792 he was on 17 July of that year created a baronet.

Stirling was unpopular, and the surgeon Alexander Wood was in danger of being thrown over the North Bridge on being mistaken for him.[2]

In his later life he lived at 69 Queen Street, an elegant townhouse in Edinburgh's First New Town.[3]

He died on 17 February 1805.[1] He is buried in the western section of Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh against the eastern wall, with his parents and children.

Family

Stirling married Alison, the daughter of James Mansfield, the senior partner in Mansfield, Ramsay, & Co. He left three sons and two daughters, and was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Gilbert, on whose death in 1843 it became extinct.[1]

Notes

  1. 1 2 3  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Stirling, James (1740?-1805)". Dictionary of National Biography 54. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  2. ↑  Lee, Sidney, ed. (1900). "Wood, Alexander (1725-1807)". Dictionary of National Biography 62. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
  3. ↑ Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directory, 1800

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1898). "Stirling, James (1740?-1805)". Dictionary of National Biography 54. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

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