James Drummond, 1st Baron Perth (12 February 1744 – 2 July 1800), was a Scottish soldier, landowner and peer. Early life Drummond was born on 12 February 1744 at Lundin, Fife, as James Lundin. He was the son of James Lundin (1707–1781) and the former Lady Rachel Bruce (d. 1769), a daughter of Thomas Bruce, 7th Earl of Kincardine. His elder sister, Veronica Drummond, married Duncan Campbell of Kames, and his elder brother was Thomas Drummond, Lord Drummond. The Lundins descended from Thomas de Lundin, a natural son of King William the Lion. James' paternal grandparents were Robert Lundin (1675–1716) and Anne Inglis (a daughter of Sir James Inglis of Cramond). His grandfather Robert was a younger son of John Drummond, 1st Earl of Melfort (younger son of the 3rd Earl of Perth), by his first wife, Sophia Maitland. Sophia, his great-grandmother, had inherited Lundin from her brother John Lundin of Lundin, both children of Margaret (née Lundin) Maitland and Robert Maitland (a younger son of John Maitland, 1st Earl of Lauderdale). Sophia's mother Margaret had inherited the Lundin estates upon the death of her father, John Lundin of Lundin, in 1684. Career The younger James Lundin, now also known as Drummond, joined the British Army in 1771. On 2 September 1780 he was promoted to Captain in the 2nd Battalion 42nd Highlanders, and served with the Battalion in India. Claim to the earldom of Perth On 6 February 1760, following the death of Edward Drummond, sixth Jacobite-jurisdiction Duke of Perth, James' father became heir to the earldom of Perth, which had been forfeit since 1716 owing to the attainder of James Drummond, 2nd Duke of Perth (the first Earl of Melfort was the younger son of James Drummond, 3rd Earl of Perth). His father, therefore, assumed the surname of Drummond and styled himself 10th Earl of Perth, and in 1776, following the death of Jean Drummond, Duchess of Perth, in 1773, he took up residence at the Drummond estate of Stobhall in Perthshire. Upon his father's death on 18 July 1781, James succeeded to his father's claim to the earldom of Perth (his elder brother Thomas, who moved to America, had died the previous November), but did not use the title. In 1784, an Act was passed allowing the Crown to grant to the heirs-male the estates that had been forfeited in 1745, and on 8 March 1785 the