James Elphinston

James Elphinston (December 6, 1721 – October 8, 1809) was a well noted 18th-century Scottish educator, orthographer, phonologist and linguistics expert.

Elphinston was a good friend of Samuel Johnson as stated in Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1904, Oxford edition), Chapter IV [1750], and tutor of Alexander James Dallas

Thirty-six of Elphinston's translations of mottoes appear in Johnson's Rambler as part of a revised, corrected edition in July 1752 (and subsequently). Johnson's affection for Elphinston is evident from a letter from early 1752 where he wrote, "I beg of You to write soon, and to write often, and to write long letters, which I hope in time to repay you, but you must be a patient Creditor."

In 1792 Elphinston moved to live in Elstree, and finally to Hammersmith in 1806, where he died in 1809. Robert Charles Dallas was Elphinston's biographer in the 1809 edition of Gentleman's Magazine no. 79.

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