James Abercromby, 1st Baron Dunfermline (created 1839), (7 November 1776 – 17 April 1858), was a barrister and Member of Parliament, and auditor to the Duke of Devonshire's estates.

James was the third son of General Sir Ralph Abercromby of Tullibody, who fell at the battle of Alexandria, March 28, 1801, by a daughter of John Menzies of Fernton, Perthshire. She was created Baroness Abercromby.

James Abercromby attended the Royal High School, Edinburgh and was called to the English Bar in 1800. In 1827 he was appointed Judge-Advocate-General, and sworn a member of the Privy Council.

He served as the Whig MP for Midhurst 1807–1812, and for Calne 1812–1832. After the Reform Act 1832 he sat for Edinburgh, Scotland until 1839.

Prior to his elevation to the peerage he was appointed, in 1830, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer in Scotland, Master of the Mint (1834) in the administration of Lord Grey, and was elected Speaker of the British House of Commons on February 19, 1835 where he sat until moving to The House of Lords.

In 1841 Lord Dunfermline was elected as Dean of Faculty in the University of Glasgow.

He married, June 14, 1802, Mary Anne, daughter of Egerton Leigh, Esq., of West Hall, in High Legh. Their son Ralph, KCB (b.1803), was sometime Secretary of Legation at Berlin, and minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to Sardinia (1840-1851), and thereafter The Hague.

References

• Burke, John, History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, vol.iii, London, 1838, p.1 - 2.
• Anderson, William, The Scottish Nation, Edinburgh, 1867, vol.iv, p.105.