Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Maxwell, James (1708?-1762)
MAXWELL, JAMES (1708?–1762), of Kirkconnel, Jacobite, born about 1708, was eldest son of William Maxwell of Kirkconnel, Kirkcudbrightshire, by Janet, daughter of George Maxwell of Carnsalloch, Dumfriesshire, and widow of Colonel John Douglas of Stenhouse. On 21 Aug. 1721 he entered the Catholic College of Douay, of which he was a specially distinguished student. After completing his studies he returned to Scotland in 1728. Like the majority of the Maxwells, the family were hereditary adherents of the Stuarts; and when the father heard in 1745 that his son had joined the Young Chevalier he expressed his supreme satisfaction, and added that if he lost his life in the cause it would be well spent. The only information obtainable regarding Maxwell's connection with the rebellion is that which may be gathered from references in his own 'Narrative of Charles Prince of Wales's Expedition to Scotland in the Year 1745,' written in France after his escape from the battle of Culloden, and printed by the Maitland Club in 1841. In it he states that he was in a position to know 'the most material things that were transacted in the council, though not a member of it,' and that he was an 'eye-witness of the greatest part of what happened in the field.' The probability is that he was attached in some capacity to the staff of the prince, or employed in some kind of secretarial duties. After his return to Scotland in 1750 he built, with bricks made on his estate, the modern portion of Kirkconnel House. The estate of Carnsalloch, which he inherited on the death of his mother in 1755, he sold to Alexander Johnstone, a merchant in London, and purchased the estate of Moble. He died 23 July 1762. By his wife Mary, youngest daughter of Thomas Riddle of Swinburne Castle, Northumberland, he had three sons: James, who succeeded him; William, and Thomas. William in September 1792 started a subscription in London for the French, citing the Corsica subscription as a precedent. His house being mobbed on the day the promoters were to meet, Maxwell slipped away unobserved, and Home Tooke received the arrivals in his own house, where money was raised and an order for arms sent to Birmingham. In December 1792 he joined the French revolutionary national guard, as a member of which he was present at the execution of Louis XVI in 1793. He afterwards settled as a physician in Dumfries, and died at Edinburgh on 13 Oct. 1834 (Alger, Englishmen in French Revolution, pp. 77-8).
[Preface to Narrative of Charles, Prince of Wales's Expedition in 1745 (Maitland Club); Anderson's Scottish Nation; Mackerlie's Lands and their Owners in Galloway, v. 219-20.]