He was baptised on 8 October 1654, son of the Reverend Charles Lumsden, Incumbent of Duddingston, and Beatrix Melvill.
[2] He married Katherine Craig on 26 October 1682, and they had eight children: Elizabeth, Beatrix, John, Charles, William, Margaret, Andrew, and Isabelle.
[3] His eldest son, John, was made a baronet in the Jacobite peerage by James Francis Edward Stuart.
[2] Lumsden became a clergyman in the Scottish Episcopal Church and was the Incumbent of the Barrenger's Close meeting-house, Edinburgh, a post which he held until his death.
[2] Following the death of Arthur Millar in October 1727,[6] Lumsden was elected the Bishop of the Diocese of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.