James Scobie

James Scobie (29 November 1826 – 7 October 1854) was a Scottish gold digger murdered at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. His death was associated with a sequence of events which led to the Eureka Rebellion.

At the later Supreme Court trial in Melbourne, gold-miner Peter Martin gave eyewitness testimony regarding the death, as published in Bell's Life in Sydney and Sporting Reviewer. He stated that he and Scobie went to Bentley's Hotel "to get something to drink", but found "the house was shut up". New evidence came to light and a trial was held in Melbourne's Supreme Court commencing 18 November: Queen v. James Francis Bentley, Catherine Bentley, William Henry Hance and Thomas Farrell in the murder of James Scobie. Judge Redmond Barry presided over the case. James Bentley, William Hance and Thomas Farrell were all found guilty of manslaughter and were each sentenced on 20 November to three years hard labour on the roads; Catherine Bentley was found not guilty.

On the afternoon of 20 November, Judge Barry presided over the trial of the Bentley's Hotel rioters. Thomas Fletcher, Andrew McIntyre, and Henry Westerly were respectively sentenced to three, four, and six months imprisonment.

He was a character in the 1949 film Eureka Stockade.