James Saunderson, 1st Earl Castleton

James Saunderson, 1st Earl Castleton (c. 1667, Sandbeck, Yorkshire – 23 May 1723) was an English landowner and Whig politician who sat in the English and British House of Commons between 1698 and 1710.

Saunderson was the eighth and only surviving son of George Saunderson, 5th Viscount Castleton and his first wife Grace Belasyse, daughter of Henry Belasyse. He was educated at Laughton and was admitted at Magdalene College, Cambridge on 19 November 1681, aged 14 and admitted at Gray's Inn in 1686. He was appointed to the alienations office in 1689, probably to reward his father for his support of King William in the Glorious Revolution and succeeded to the stewardship of the manor of Kirton on the death of his elder brother, Nicholas, in 1693. He travelled abroad to Germany, Austria, Italy, Spanish Netherlands and France from 1695 to 1698. He attended Padua University in 1696.