James Steuart of Coltness

Who was James Steuart of Coltness?

Sir James Steuart of Coltness was a Scottish merchant, banker, landowner, politician and Covenanter.

Steuart was the posthumous son of James Steuart of Allanton, Lanarkshire. He was a merchant and banker in Edinburgh and acquired the estates of Kirkfield and Coltness, both in Lanarkshire.

Steuart served as Lord Provost of Edinburgh in 1649, Commissioner for Edinburgh to the Parliament of Scotland from 1649 to 1650, and Lord Provost again in 1659. At the Restoration he was dismissed as a Covenanter. After confinement in Edinburgh Castle, Steuart was sent to Dundee as a prisoner. He was granted a pardon in 1670.

In 1630 he married Anne, daughter of Henry Hope and niece of the Lord Advocate Sir Thomas Hope of Craighall. She died in 1646, and Steuart married in 1648 Marion, widow of Sir John Elliott and only daughter and heiress of David McCulloch, of Goodtrees.

His children by his first marriage included Sir Thomas Steuart, 1st Baronet, of Coltness; James Steuart, of Goodtrees; and Sir Robert Steuart, 1st Baronet, of Allanbank.