Sir James Stirling

Sir James Stirling, 1st Baronet was a Scottish banker and lord provost of Edinburgh.

Born into a family of a cloth merchant in Edinburgh, James was sent as a youth to the West Indies as clerk in the service of a planter Archibald Stirling of Keir and not long afterwards he became secretary to Sir John Dalling, the governor of Jamaica.

Having acquired a fortune in the West Indies, Stirling decided to return to Scotland and start his own business in Edinburgh. Interested in monetary affairs he became a partner in the banking house of Mansfield, Ramsay, & Co. As a man of prominence, he also served as the treasurer of the town council of Edinburgh (1733-1774) and lord provost in several occasions. In 1773 he was elected on a prominent and lucrative post of Director of Bank of Scotland.

Due to the success on the public and the business plan James was created a baronet in 1792.