James Baillie (1737 – 7 September 1793) was a Scottish merchant, planter and politician who served as a member of Parliament for Horsham from 1792 to 1793.

[3][4] Baillie arrived in St. Christopher's (Saint Kitts) in 1755, and soon bought the Hermitage plantation in Grenada, undertook around 20 years of work, and in 1775 (?)

In 1772 James Baillie wrote: "[through] 1755–71 I was employed in the line of planting and commerce in the islands of St Christopher and Grenada [and Demerary]... and [in 1772] our house sold Negroes here to the amount of £120,000 sterling..."[5] At the time of the 1833 compensation claims Baillie's heirs were awarded c. £73,700 compensation for their c. 1,821 slaves in Grenada, Guyana and St.

[5] But as Member for Horsham Baillie it is known that he spoke well in favour of the planters (plantation owners) in the slavery debate of 2 April 1792, against Wilberforce's "wild, impracticable, and visionary scheme" of abolition, adding that there was "more wretchedness and poverty in the parish of St. Giles' than in the whole of the British colonies".

[5] In London Baillie lived in Bedford Square and Ealing Grove, the nine bays and three-storeyed pedimented central projection Palladian palace set in 64 acres, re-modeled for Joseph Gulston, the younger, the collector and MP.

The world of Baillie was captured by Thomas Gainsborough in a large (100 x 90 inches) portrait that had been intended for the RA show of 1784.

Alexander Baillie, drawn by Ingres in 1816, was a close friend of Jørgen von Cappelen Knudtzon (1784–1854), the Norwegian.

In addition there they were champion breeders of Red Polled Cattle in the USA),[15] was a director of the American Sugar Refining Company, and associate and cousin of Henry Osborne Havemeyer.

Mr. Senff had a renowned and valuable collection of paintings, which included a Frans Hals portrait and some Corot bathing nymphs.