Sir John James, 1st Baronet


Sir John Kingston James, 1st Baronet was a Dublin wine merchant who was twice elected Lord Mayor of Dublin.
He was the son of Francis James of King's County. Trading as a wine merchant, he was elected Sheriff of Dublin for 1811–12 and an alderman of Dublin Corporation in 1818. In 1815 he was accepted as a member of the prestigious Dublin Society.
He was elected Lord Mayor of the city for the first time for 1821–22 and was knighted by the Lord Lieutenant, the Marquess of Wellesley, in 1822 and created a baronet on the 19 March 1823.
He became a director of the Grand Canal Company of Ireland, serving as its chairman in 1826, 1834 and 1842, the Dublin and Drogheda Railway Company and the Bank of Ireland.
In 1840 he was elected Lord Mayor of Dublin for a second annual term.
He died in 1869. He had married Charlotte Rebecca, the daughter of alderman John Cash, with whom he had 8 children and was succeeded in the baronetcy by their eldest son Sir John James, 2nd Baronet. The baronetcy has since become extinct.