Sir James Campbell

James Campbell (1790––1876) was Scottish businessman and politician. With his brother William Campbell, he formed company called "J. & W. Campbell & Co., General Warehousemen." James was the father of Henry Campbell-Bannerman, prime minister of the United Kingdom. Ancestry and early life James Campbell was the second son of a family of nine, and was born in 1790, on the farm of Inchanoch, near the Port of Monteith, in Perthshire, where his father, James McOran, was tenant of a farm on the Gartmore estate. The family tradition was the following:- About the year 1660, a young Campbell of Melfort, in Argyllshire, who had got into trouble at home, came to the Menteith district under the assumed name of McCoran or McOran. He was received into service by the Earl of Menteith, who knew his history, and was soon appointed to the charge of the Earl's household. He afterwards married a niece of Haldane of Lanrick, and was settled by the Earl on the farm of Inchanoch. There he and his descendants lived, bearing in Menteith the name of McOran; but when any of the family migrated to settle elsewhere, they resumed the old Clan name of Campbell. In consequence of some arrangements between the proprietors of Gartmore and Rednock, leading to an exchange of lands, including Inchanoch, James McOran in 1805 surrendered his lease and migrated with his wife and family - the family consisting of four sons and four daughters - to Glasgow, where, in accordance with the family rule, they arrived, not as McOrans, but as Campbells. The eldest son, John, went to America, leaving James the eldest of the sons remaining in Glasgow. The third son, Alexander, died unmarried in 1822. The fourth, William, afterwards of Tullichewan later went into business with James. After some short time at school, James was apprenticed to McLachlan & McKeand, warehousemen, High Street, the former of whom had known the family at the Port of Menteith, and now proved a warm friend to them in Glasgow.