James Gifford, the elder (c. 1739–1813) was a British Army officer and Unitarian writer.
Later, a captain of the 14th Foot, he served in Canada at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.
His controversial writing brought him into friendly relations with George Dyer, William Frend and Theophilus Lindsey.
Money was left to him by Elizabeth Rayner, who died in 1800, a patron of the Unitarians.
[2] Gifford published:[2] Gifford married, in Boston, Massachusetts, Elizabeth Cremer, a native of Bury St Edmunds, who died at St Helier, Jersey, on 16 April 1840, aged 94.