James Macartney

James Macartney (1651/3–16 December 1727) was an Irish lawyer, judge and politician, notable mainly for presiding at the Islandmagee witch trial of 1711, which was apparently the last such trial in Ireland. Biography He was the eldest son of George Macartney, surveyor of Belfast, and his first wife Jane Calderwood; George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, was descended from his younger brother. He entered Middle Temple in 1671 and the King's Inn in 1677. He sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Belfast from 1692 to 1693 and from 1695 to 1699 and in 1701 was made second justice of the Court of King's Bench. He was removed from the Bench in 1711 due to his political allegiance but reappointed in 1714, and was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas the same year. Witch trials