James Abercromby (or Abercrombie), colonial agent and member of Parliament, was born in Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, Scotland. He was the third son of Alexander Abercromby, M.P. There were many branches of the Abercromby family of Clackmannanshire in the eighteenth century, all noted for their wealth, legal training, military careers, and staunch Whiggish leanings. Following preparatory training at Westminster in London, James Abercromby attended Leyden University in Holland from 1724 to 1726. In the latter year he returned to London, entering Lincoln's Inn to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1728. However, as was the case with many who studied at Lincoln's Inn, Abercromby chose a career in public service rather than law.

In 1730 Abercromby left England for South Carolina, having received an appointment as attorney general for the colony. He held this position for fifteen years and, during the period from 1739 to 1760, also served as a member of the South Carolina assembly. He was one of the South Carolina commissioners appointed to run the boundary line between that colony and North Carolina in 1735 and 1736. During the French and Indian War (1754–63) James Abercromby held two positions: from 1757 to 1765 deputy auditor general for plantations and from 1758 to 1764 agent for the Royal American Regiment, which was commanded by a cousin also named James Abercromby. In 1760 Abercromby returned to England and a year later, through attachment to Thomas Pelham-Holles, Duke of Newcastle, gained the seat for Clackmannan and Kinross in Parliament. However, he did not join Newcastle's open opposition to the Lord Bute government, as expected, choosing instead to support the 1762 Anglo-French peace negotiations that led to the Peace of Paris, 1763. Later he rejoined the Newcastle Whigs in opposing repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766 and passage of William Pitt's land tax bill in 1767.

The following year Abercromby retired from Parliament. He returned to Clackmannanshire where, until his death seven years later, he lived on a small parliamentary pension awarded in 1764.

Abercromby is best remembered for his contributions as colonial agent. During his career in this capacity he served three colonies: South Carolina from 1742 to 1757, Virginia from 1754 to 1774, and North Carolina from 1759 to 1763. Although a staunch Whig, Abercromby as an agent was in no way a proponent of colonial self-reliance or self-determinism. In fact, he was outspokenly in favor of colonial subservience and strict enforcement of mercantilist trade regulations. While these views can be seen in his opposition to repeal of the Stamp Act in 1766, they are expressed most clearly in a treatise submitted in 1752 to Robert D'Arcy, the Earl of Holderness and secretary of state for the North, under the title An Examination of the Acts of Parliament Relative to the Trade and Government of Our American Colonies: Also the Different Constitutions of Government in those Colonies Considered with Remarks by way of a Bill for Amendment of the Laws of this Kingdom in relation to the Government and Trade of those Colonies: Which Bill is Humbly Submitted to the Consideration of His Majesty's Ministers of State, more particularly those in Office, before whom the Several Matters herein Treated are properly Cognizable: And for whose Use this Performance is intended. While as verbose in content as in title, the pamphlet has been characterized by the historian Charles M. Andrews as the best available eighteenth-century presentation of the mercantilist system. The main points of Abercromby's argument were that the colonies were founded to benefit England and that it was solely Parliament's responsibility to enforce this relationship by statute. Should Parliament not move to assume its responsibility, Abercromby predicted that the American colonies, while in 1752 still divided in interest and action, would eventually realize their common concerns and unite as an independent confederation. To prevent this occurrence, Abercromby urged the passage of a statute clearly stating and providing for the firm enforcement of colonial subservience to the mother country. Thereby, he argued, colonial self-assertiveness would be stemmed and the growing population and prosperity of America could be channeled to the best interests of Britain and the British people.

With such ideas, it is not surprising that Abercromby was a strong supporter of the royal governor and the "prerogative party" in contests with the colonial assembly. As agent for the Virginia colony in the late 1750s, he uncompromisingly supported Governor Robert Dinwiddie in his dispute with the House of Burgesses over the pistole fee. When Dinwiddie's successor, Francis Fauquier, attempted to cool the burgesses' anger by allowing the lower house to appoint its own agent, Abercromby was bitter in his denunciation of the governor for such a show of weakness. Thereafter he did little for the colony. While his devotion to duty can be documented by his frequent attendance at sessions of the board of trade, his actions were often at odds with the best interests of the colony he represented. The principles of colonial subservience and mercantilism held priority in his mind. As agent for South Carolina, his efforts before the board of trade on the salt monopoly and on colonial defense clearly reveal his devotion to England's best interests. In his service to North Carolina, Abercromby was exhaustive in his aid to Governor Gabriel Johnston against assembly criticism of the latter's "tyranny" in the passage of the 1746 representation act. Likewise, he provided Governor Arthur Dobbs with unqualified aid during the quitrent controversy of the 1750s. These actions raised the ire of the North Carolina lower house, and renewal of Abercromby's appointment was hotly contested before it was passed in 1758. Ironically, the council objected to his reappointment as North Carolina agent in 1760, labeling him "a tool of the Assembly cabal."

By 1760 Abercromby's usefulness as a colonial agent had begun to decline. The rising tide of colonial "independency" ran counter to all the ideals he held dear. While he continued as North Carolina's agent until 1763 and as Virginia's until 1774, he was agent in name only, for the representation of these colonies had passed to men whose ideas were more compatible with the interests of the lower houses.

Due possibly to the travel required by his service as agent for three colonies, Abercromby never married. At his death he was buried in the Abercromby family graveyard in Clackmannan. It is perhaps fortunate that he did not live to see the final repudiation of his ideas on colonial policy in the American Revolution.  
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ABERCROMBY, James (1707-75), of Brucefield, Clackmannan.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1754-1790, ed. L. Namier, J. Brooke., 1964 Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency CLACKMANNANSHIRE 1761 - 1768

Family and Education

b. 1707, 3rd s. of Alexander Abercromby, M.P., of Tullibody by Mary, da. of Alexander Duff of Braco; uncle of Burnet and Ralph Abercromby. educ. Westminster 1720; Leyden 1724 or 1725; L. Inn 1726, called 1738. unm.

Offices Held

Attorney-gen. S. Carolina 1730-45; agent N. Carolina 1748-57; agent N. Carolina assembly 1758-60; agent Virginia 1754-61; agent Virginia gov. and council 1761-74; dep. auditor gen. of plantations 1757-65.

Purchased Brucefield estate 1758 or 1759.

Biography

The greater part of Abercromby’s active life was spent in the Carolinas and Virginia, or on their business in London.1 During his residence in South Carolina as attorney-general he acquired a plantation and other property in the colony, and in 1739 became a member of the assembly. Diligent in the conduct of affairs, he acquired a reputation for being ‘very tenacious of his fees and perquisites’;2 and by 1761 his agency business was running down. The only agency he retained, that for the governor and council of Virginia, was more concerned with the raising of royal revenues than with the business of the colony.

Returned apparently unopposed for Clackmannan in 1761, he attached himself to Newcastle, to whom he sent on 4 Apr. 1762 a memorandum on sugar exports from Martinique and Guadeloupe. In a covering letter he wrote:3

His Grace ... will be pleased to look upon this as an instance of Mr. Abercromby’s inclination to serve his Grace in public or in private capacity on all occasions, in return for his Grace’s favour about to be granted to Mr. Abercromby in the way of office (as others before him have enjoyed) upon the interposition of his friend Lord Kinnoull.

It is not known to what office this refers.

Abercromby, however, did not follow Newcastle into opposition, but in December 1762 was counted by Fox among those favourable to the peace preliminaries, and appears in no minority list during the Grenville Administration. In 1763 he was examined before the Board of Trade on the question of Virginia’s paper currency and sterling debts,4 but despite his expert knowledge, did not intervene in the debates of March 1764 on Grenville’s budget and the American tax bill. Charles Stuart, a Scots Virginia merchant, reported on the third reading of the American bill:5 ‘The colonies mustered their forces. New England was pretty strong; Virginia made no figure at all.’

On 6 Jan. 1765 Abercromby wrote to Grenville:6

After many years service in plantation business, but of late years more particularly concerned in matters of his Majesty’s personal revenue, I have ... made some discoveries and observations whereby the King’s particular revenues may be much improved, through the interposition of the Treasury alone; but while duty to the King leads me to lay such before you, on the other hand, I am restrained from doing anything whereby I may undo myself in the service of those upon whom at present is my sole depen[dence]. In this situation prudence directs me to remain silent, and thereupon I make the following proposal ...

Finding that my conduct in Parliament with regard to plantation matters ... may not correspond in many respects with the sentiments of my constituents in America, and moreover that public business and service in Parliament become too much for my health, but above all considering that my situation must prove extremely precarious, serving in office under the nomination and pleasure of the government of Virginia, whose administration in point of the King’s revenues I must call in question ... I am very much inclined to retire from the service and to resign my employment of solicitor or agent for the King’s affairs in Virginia ... The nomination ... is from the lt.-governor and council in Virginia, the salary £400 sterling per annum (besides occasional perquisites), 200 whereof paid out of the 2s. hogshead tobacco, the additional 200 out of the quitrents. But as my circumstances do not admit of a resignation without obtaining an adequate income, in consideration therefore of my services and of the improvement of the King’s personal revenue ... I humbly propose that his Majesty do grant to me an addition of £300 to the £200 which I now have on the quitrents, so as to make up to me my present income by way of an annuity for life ... which addition may be considered as a temporary reward to a person by whose means an additional and permanent revenue is acquired by the King and a revenue of such a nature as may be extended to all others of the King’s colonies.

In return for the pension, Abercromby proposed to prepare a complete review of American royal revenues. If the offer were accepted, the King would receive the benefit ‘of the labour of thirty years’ service ... and your Administration the merit of carrying into execution what may be found beneficial therein ...’ Abercrombie was apparently interviewed either by Grenville or Jenkinson, but received no pension, and of his revenue scheme nothing further is recorded. He remained agent for Virginia council until at least September 1774.7

Grenville so far interested himself in Abercromby’s career as to make in June 1765 a tentative and obscure approach to Sir Lawrence Dundas and Lord Gower, with the apparent object of obtaining for Abercromby a seat in the next Parliament.8

Although listed ‘pro’ by Rockingham in July 1765, Abercromby followed Grenville into opposition, spoke 18 Dec. 1765 in support of Rigby’s and Grenville’s motion for American papers,9 and voted against the repeal of the Stamp Act, 7 Feb. 1766. Under the Chatham Administration he was listed by Rockingham as attached to Bute, by Townshend as ‘doubtful’, and by Newcastle as ‘Administration’, but he voted against the Government on the land tax, 27 Feb. 1767. He does not appear to have stood in 1768.

He died before November 1775.10

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790 Author: Edith Lady Haden-Guest

Notes

• 1.For his work as colonial agent, see E. Lonn, Col. Agents of Southern Cols., Bd. Trade Jnls., Col. Recs. of N.C., and Recs. of Robert Dinwiddie (Va. Hist. Coll.).
• 2.Robert to Andrew Pringle, 7 May and 9 June 1744, Pringle’s letter bk. in possession of S.C. Hist. Soc.
• 3.Add. 32936, f. 329.
• 4.Bd. Trade Jnl. 1759-63 , pp. 330-1 and 2 Feb. 1763.
• 5.Stuart’s letter bk. 23 Mar. 1764, Liverpool RO.
• 6.Add. 38204, f. 9.
• 7.Lonn, 66.
• 8.Sandwich to Grenville, 15 June 1765, Grenville mss (JM); Grenville to Sandwich, 16 June 1765, Sandwich mss.
• 9.Harris’s ‘Debates’, 18 Dec. 1765.
• 10.Comm. Recs. of Stirling, i. sub. 18 Nov. 1775.

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James Abercromby ( was baptized on 24 August 1708 at Alloa Parish, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, the third son of Alexander Abercromby of Tullibody and Mary Duff. He was educated at Westminster in London, Leiden University in the Netherlands and studied law at Lincoln's Inn in London before traveling to South Carolina as a young man of twenty-one years of age.

The first record of him at Charleston, South Carolina is dated 12 July 1730 when he was justice of the peace in two deeds. This was soon after the Crown began administering the colony following repurchase from the Lords Proprietors, and at that time South Carolina was on the southern frontier of British America. James was appointed attorney general of the colony a few months later, on 30 November 1730, and served in that capacity, excepting a few trips home to Britain, until he left South Carolina for the last time in June 1744 for London on the ship George.

During his fourteen years residence in South Carolina he was involved in the social, religious and political activities of the young colony.

Between 1732 and 1739 he had surveyed and was granted 6,980 acres of land in South Carolina on the Big Peedee and Waccamaw Rivers, and by 1737 he acquired lot 206 on Church Street in Georgetown. In 1740 he sold 5,000 acres of this land to Hugh Swinton, brother of William Swinton, the surveyor who laid out Georgetown.