James Somerville, 11th Lord Somerville

James Somerville (1632–1690) was a Scottish family historian. A youthful soldier of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, he like his father declined to claim the title Lord Somerville, but wrote an extensive work on his ancestry, later edited by Walter Scott.

Baptised on 24 January 1632 at Newhall in Lanarkshire, he was eldest and only surviving son of James Somerville of The Drum (by right, tenth Lord Somerville) and Lilias, second daughter of Sir James Bannatyne of Newhall, a lord of session. James's father had gained military experience in France, as an officer in the Scots guard of Louis XIII. On the outbreak of the First Bishops' War in 1639, the elder Somerville joined the covenanting levies under General Alexander Leslie, and with the rank of major had a leading command at the siege of Edinburgh Castle in 1640. James joined his father's company at this siege.

In 1645 the teenage Somerville was present at David Leslie's first cavalry muster on the Gleds Muir, Tranent. The death of both his younger brothers in 1647 left him the only heir male of his house, and his parents said that he should never leave Scotland. In 1648 his father, having purchased from a cousin the old family seat at Cambusnethan in Lanarkshire, moved there from The Drum, and arranged for his son's marriage with Martha Bannatyne of Corhouse. After Oliver Cromwell's advance into Scotland, the match was put off. The Scots levies concentrated at Edinburgh. Somerville went there with his father, and served in the retinue of the Earl of Eglinton, captain of the king's guard of horse. He saw service, at most of the military actions which took place between the two armies, including the Battle of Dunbar (3 September 1650).

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