James Annesley, 2nd Earl of Anglesey FRS (c. 1645 – 1 April 1690), styled Lord Annesley from 1661 to 1686, was a British peer.
He was the son of Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey and Elizabeth Altham. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford University, on 4 December 1661.
He married Lady Elizabeth Manners, daughter of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland and Frances Montagu, on 17 September 1669. They had children:
He died intestate and his estate, with a value estimated at £4,000pa in England and Ireland, was administered to his widow on 6 June 1690.
He was briefly a Whig MP for County Waterford in 1666, after his brother-in-law, Richard Power, 1st Earl of Tyrone succeeded in his father's (Irish) peerage. He was elected to the English seat of Winchester in the parliaments of May and October 1679, and 1681. He was a JP for Hampshire and Surrey (1674–81), colonel of the Hampshire militia (1675–81), Custos Rotulorum of Hampshire(1675–81) and Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire (1680–81).
He succeeded to his father's titles of Baron Mountnorris and Earl of Anglesey, in Wales [E., 1661], 2nd Baron Annesley, of Newport Pagnel, Buckinghamshire [E., 1661] and 3rd Viscount Valentia on 6 April 1686.