James Macartney (1651/3–16 December 1727) was an Irish lawyer, judge and politician, notable mainly for presiding at the Islandmagee witch trial of 1711, which was apparently the last such trial in Ireland.

Biography

He was the eldest son of George Macartney, surveyor of

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

, and his first wife Jane Calderwood;

George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney :''George Macartney should not be confused with Sir George Macartney, a later British statesman.'' George McCartney, 1st Earl McCartney (14 May 1737 – 31 May 1806), also spelt Macartney, was an Anglo-Irish statesman, colonial administrator a ...

, was descended from his younger brother. He entered

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1671 and the

King's Inn The Honorable Society of King's Inns ( ir, Cumann Onórach Óstaí an Rí) is the "Inn of Court" for the Bar of Ireland. Established in 1541, King's Inns is Ireland's oldest school of law and one of Ireland's significant historical environment ...

in 1677. He sat in the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until 1800. The upper house was the House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, but on a highly restrictive fran ...

as member for

from 1692 to 1693 and from 1695 to 1699 and in 1701 was made second justice of the

Court of King's Bench The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions. * Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of common ...

. He was removed from the Bench in 1711 due to his political allegiance but reappointed in 1714, and was transferred to the

Court of Common Pleas A court of common pleas is a common kind of court structure found in various common law jurisdictions. The form originated with the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, which was created to permit individuals to press civil grievances against one ...

the same year.

Witch trials

Historians have criticised the credulity he displayed at the

Islandmagee Islandmagee () is a peninsula and civil parish on the east coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland, located between the towns of Larne and Whitehead. It is part of the Mid and East Antrim Borough Council area and is a sparsely populated rural ...

witchcraft trials of 1711, which were the last such trials to be held in Ireland. Eight women were charged with bewitching a young woman called Mary Dunbar; in noted contrast to his colleague Mr Justice Upton, who called them women of blameless life and devout churchgoers, and urged the jury to acquit them, Macartney urged the jury to convict, which they duly did. On the other hand, since in theory

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

was a capital crime, the sentence he imposed of a year's imprisonment with four sessions in the pillory was relatively lenient.

Later years

Despite much criticism of his conduct at the Islandmagee trials, he was later spoken of twice as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, but was passed over. He retired from the Bench in 1726 and died in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

the following year. Macartney married firstly Frances, daughter of Sir Anthony Irby and Catherine Paget, who died in 1684, and secondly Alice, daughter of Sir James Cuffe and his wife Alice Aungier, sister of Francis Aungier, 1st Earl of Longford, by whom he had a son, James Macartney junior. Alice died on 7 October 1725. Their descendants included the poet

Frances Greville Frances Greville née Macartney (c 1724 – 1789) was an Irish poet and celebrity in Georgian England. She was born in Longford, Ireland in the mid-1720s; one of four daughters of James Macartney and Catherine (née Coote), daughter of the ...

(nee Macartney) and her daughter, the noted political hostess Frances Anne Crewe.

Burke Burke is an Anglo-Norman Irish surname, deriving from the ancient Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman noble dynasty, the House of Burgh. In Ireland, the descendants of William de Burgh (–1206) had the surname ''de Burgh'' which was gaelicised ...

's ''Extinct Peerage'' (1866
p. 149
Mrs Crewe (Thomas Gainsborough)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macartney, James 1650s births 1727 deaths Irish MPs 1692–1693 Irish MPs 1695–1699 Justices of the Irish King's Bench Justices of the Irish Common Pleas Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for Belfast