James Macartney (died 1727)

James Macartney (c. 1651-3 – 16 December 1727) was an Irish lawyer, judge and politician, notable mainly for presiding at the Carrickfergus witch trials of 1711.

Biography

He was the eldest son of George Macartney, surveyor of Belfast, and Jane Calderwood; George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney, was descended from his younger brother.^[1] He entered Middle Temple in 1671 and the King's Inn in 1677.^[2]

He sat in the Irish House of Commons for Belfast from 1692 to 1693 and from 1695 to 1699^[3] and in 1701 was made second justice of the Court of King's Bench. He was removed in 1711 due to his political opinions, but reappointed in 1714,^[4] and was transferred to the Court of Common Pleas the same year.^[5]

Historians have criticised the credulity he displayed at the Carrickfergus 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 an acquittal, Macartney urged the jury to convict, which they duly did. On the other hand, since in theory witchcraft was a capital crime, the sentence of a year's imprisonment with four sessions in the pillory was relatively lenient.^[6]

Despite criticism of his conduct, 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 the following year.^[7]

Macartney married firstly Frances, daughter of Sir Anthony Irby, who died in 1684, and secondly Alice, fourth daughter of Sir James Cuffe, by whom he had a son, James Macartney junior. Alice died on 7 October 1725.^[8]

References