James Colville, 1st Lord Colville of Culross

James Colville, 1st Lord Colville of Culross (1551–1629) was a Scottish soldier, courtier, and diplomat.

Life
James Colville was the son of James Colville of East Wemyss (d. 1562) and Janet Douglas, a daughter of Sir Robert Douglas of Lochleven and Margaret Erskine.

Before becoming Lord Colville, he was known as the "Laird of East Wemyss", and often simply as the "Laird of Wemyss".

He was a distinguished soldier who fought in France for Henry, Prince of Navarre, later King Henry IV. He returned to Scotland in 1582 along with Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, loaded down with commendations from his French patrons. He was involved in the Ruthven raid, on 22 August of that year.

After James VI of Scotland came to the English throne in 1603, Colville was one of James's main supporters in the Jacobean debate on the Union.

Family
His first marriage was in 1570 to Isabel Ruthven, daughter of Patrick Ruthven, 3rd Lord Ruthven, with whom he had five children. In 1599 he remarried Helen Schaw, niece of William Schaw, an event which caused a feud with Francis Mowbray, brother of Helen's dead husband, Robert Mowbray. They had a further child together.

Calvin's case, the leading legal test of the status of citizenship after the 1603 union of the crowns of England and Scotland, was at least notionally concerned with the legal rights of Colville's young grandson James.