Elder Sir James Lockhart of Lee

Sir James Lockhart, Laird of Lee (died 1674) was a Scottish courtier, politician and judge, and a royalist commander of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. Life He was son of Sir James Lockhart XI of Lee, of a lairdly family, by his wife, Jean Weir of Stonebyres, Lanarkshire. While still a young man he was a gentleman of the privy chamber to Charles I, and was knighted. He sat in the Scottish parliaments of 1630 and 1633 as commissioner for Lanarkshire, and was appointed lord of the articles on 20 June 1633. Lockhart did not sit in the parliament of 1641, perhaps because of his adherence to the Marquis of Hamilton. In 1644, and again in 1645, he contested Lanarkshire against Sir William Hamilton, and on the second occasion with success: on the first there was a disputed return decided, 5 June 1644, in favour of Hamilton. On 1 February 1645 he was appointed a commissioner of the exchequer, and on 2 July 1646 an ordinary lord of session in succession to Lord Durie the elder, who had died. Lockhart took part in the engagement for the relief of King Charles in 1648, and under the Marquis of Hamilton commanded a regiment at the battle of Preston. On 16 February 1649, he was deprived of his office by the Act of Classes, and was banished with others by an act of the estates, 4 June 1650. He petitioned for the removal of his sentence of banishment, and on 5 December of the same year his banishment was annulled.