James Macrae

James Macrae
President of Fort St George (Madras)
In office 15 January 1725 – 14 May 1730
Preceded by	Nathaniel Elwick
Succeeded by	George Morton Pitt
Personal details
Born	1677
Died	July 1744
Signature

James Macrae (1677-July 1744) was a Scottish seaman and administrator who served as the President of Fort St George from 1725 to 1730. He is known for naval exploits against the pirate Edward England and for reforming the administration of Madras Presidency.

James Macrae was born in 1677, in Ayrshire, Scotland. Little is known about his ancestry; according to the history of the clan Macrae his paternal grandfather was one John Macrae, also known as Ian Mac Ian Oig Dubh, "Black John the young son of John". Macrae's father died when he was barely five years old and the family moved to the town of Ayr where they lived in a thatched hut. Macrae's mother found a job as a washerwoman. Macrae did not have any formal education of his own but picked up bits and pieces of knowledge on the world about him. He added his own to the family's meagre earnings by delivering messages. Tired of poverty, Macrae soon ran away from home and sailed to India.

James Talboys Wheeler, writes that Macrae was "tired of this monotonous life" and "with the energy he showed then he would have assimilated the passionate desire to embark in commercial ventures of the time" More prosaically, Dr. Eric J. Graham, Scottish historian specializing in maritime history, concludes that embarking at sea in 1692, "Macrae fled a life close to starvation".

Little is known about the first thirty years of his life. Macrae worked as a seaman in service of the British East India Company and rose to become captain. While functioning as the skipper of the Cassandra, Macrae encountered the fabled pirate Edward England near the Comoros on August 17, 1720. While Robert Kirtby and the Dutch vessel assigned to assist Macrae fled the scene, Macrae single-handedly engaged England. During a naval battle which lasted over three hours, Macrae and his men killed about a hundred of England's pirates who numbered about 500. However, seven more hours later, they faced heavy reverses and were forced to abandon ship. This naval battle was later described by Graham as the "bloodiest engagement and killing of pirates along the African coast".

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