James Coutts

James Coutts (10 March 1733 – 15 February 1778) was a Scottish politician, merchant and founder of the Coutts & Co. bank.

Early life Coutts was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on 10 March 1733. He was the third son of Jean Steuart and John Coutts, the former Lord Provost of Edinburgh.

Coutts was educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh.

On 27 February 1762 by-election, as a supporter of Lord Bute (who became Prime Minister of Great Britain in May 1762), Coutts was elected to replace George Lind as the Scottish representative for Edinburgh in the Parliament of Great Britain. Coutts supported the Grenville Administration, Bute's successor, on Wilkes and general warrants. On 19 March 1764, when speaking on a motion to regulate Scottish banks, his language in the House was sometimes "strange and incoherent". In response, his friends sent him an anonymous letter, a draft of which is preserved in the papers of Caleb Whitefoord. Polly, a daughter of Elizabeth (née Campbell) Peagrum and John Peagrum of Elmstead, was the niece and heiress of London banker George Campbell. She was also the niece of John Campbell, 1st Earl of Breadalbane and Holland, the granddaughter Sir John Campbell of Glen Orchy and the great-granddaughter of William Graham, 1st Earl of Airth. Together, they were the parents of:

Frances Coutts (d. 1809), who married Sir John Steuart of Allanbank, 4th Baronet (1754–1817). Wrong before James died in 1776 he married again in secret to Isabell Low 21 May 1770 in Dundee, Angus, Scotland and had a son that he named James James Coutts that was born 9 Sept 1776 and christening was 12 Sept 1776 at Edinburgh Parish, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland and James with 2nd wife were there see Isabel Low in entry is Scotland Marriages, 1561-1910”.