James Cunningham, 7th Earl of Glencairn

James Cunningham, 7th Earl of Glencairn (1552 – 1630) was a Scottish peer and member of the Privy Council of Scotland.

The eldest son and heir of William Cunningham, 6th Earl of Glencairn by his spouse Janet, daughter of Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar, James was engaged in the notorious Raid of Ruthven in 1582.

A Privy Councillor to King James VI of Scotland, he was one of the Commissioners nominated by parliament, in 1604, for the projected Union with England.

The disputes amongst the Scots nobility regarding precedence reached such a height in the reign of James VI that a Royal Commission was appointed by that monarch in 1606 to regulate the matter, and the different peers were invited to produce their Letters Patents, or other evidence, in support of the relative antiquity of their titles. The result was the publication of the noted Decreet of Ranking on 5 March 1606. James, Earl of Glencairn, not having requisite proof at hand, and not being lawfully summoned, did not appear on the occasion; his precedence was, in consequence, unjustly prejudiced, and he was ranked after, instead of before, the Earls of Eglinton, Montrose, Cassillis, and Caithness. Three years afterwards, on 16 June 1609, having been summoned to attend parliament, Glencairn appeared personally before the Lords of the Privy Council, and stated that he was bringing an Action of Reduction of the said Decreet before the Lords of Council and Session, and produced the original Glencairn Patent of 28 May 1488, requesting that it should be "read in the audience of the Parliament". In the Action of Reduction he obtained a judgement in his favour dated 7 July 1610, affirming his precedence over the Earls of Eglinton and Cassillis. However, as the other two earls (Montrose and Caithness) had not been cited in the action, and as the judgement of the court placed the Earl of Eglinton after them, though entitled to precede them, that peer brought a further Action of Reduction of the said sentence and obtained a decreet in his favour dated 11 February 1617.

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