James Graves (11 October 1816 – 20 March 1886[1][2] was an Irish clergyman, antiquary and archaeologist of the Victorian era.

[3] He stated his nurse regretted he had not been named Kenny, after the patron saint to whom he thus had a double allegiance.

A close friend of John O'Donovan, he was also acquainted with George Petrie, and like them devoted his life towards the preservation of the antiquities of his native country.

In particular, he was responsible for the careful conservation work on St Canice's cathedral in Kilkenny city, while he was treasurer, and in the 1860s and 1870s he worked through the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, of which he was himself a founding member,[6] when it was founded as the Kilkenny Archaeological Society,[5] towards the conservation of several important ruined medieval churches.

In particular, as a respectable Anglican clergyman, he was able to gain the ear of the establishment more easily than some of his Catholic contemporaries.