Abercromby, James (1776-1858), 1st Baron Dunfermline, speaker of the House of Commons

Third son of General Sir Ralph Abercromby and his wife, Mary Anne. Educated at Edinburgh High School and Christ Church, Oxford, and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1800. In 1801 he obtained a commissionership of bankruptcy, and subsequently he became auditor to the estates of the duke of Devonshire. He broke with family tradition in becoming a whig, and was MP for Midhurst, 1807–12, and for Calne, 1812–30. Between 1835-1839 he served as Speaker of the House of Commons being the first Scot to do so.