[1] James Ewan was born on the 18th of July 1843 near Leith Walk, Edinburgh to headmaster and geography author father of the same name, and mother Mary née Blair.

[2][3] As a young man in 1857, Ewan began to work with the wholesale grocery store owner turned-mercantile and brother in law John Frazer.

[5] Ewan had two sons, who were squatters who managed his pastoral properties, and six daughters who he married to prominent doctors of Sydney.

[6][7] Ewan died in his Glenleigh Mansion in the late afternoon of Saturday, the 1st of August 1903 surrounded by six doctors and a number of nurses, after a short week-long battle with Influenza.

[4] After a brief visit to England in 1882 for treatment for his kidney condition.,[4] Ewan returned to the position of chairman of the Australasian Steam Navigation Company in January 1884.

Ewan retained his shared ownership with Watson in the Grafton Bond Store, and leased its use to the Burns, Philp & Co Ltd for £14,500 a year [2] After the A.S.N was dissolved, Ewan took up the position of chairman of the City Bank of Sydney in 1885, leading the company through a fire that destroyed the Martin Place offices in 1890 and the financial crisis of 1893; where it remained as one of the four surviving banks in Sydney.

After Ewan's death, Marion Ewan large sums of her fortune to charitable activities run through the church in an attempt to endear the nearby community, of which she felt largely disconnected from due to James' frequent staying's at Watson's Glanworth Estate for business purposes.