James Macartney (died 1727)

[2] He sat in the Irish House of Commons as member for Belfast from 1692 to 1693 and from 1695 to 1699[3] and in 1701 was made second justice of the Court of King's Bench.

[6] Eight women were charged with bewitching a young woman called Mary Dunbar; in noted contrast to his colleague Mr Justice Upton, who called them women of blameless life and devout churchgoers, and urged the jury to acquit them, Macartney urged the jury to convict, which they duly did.

On the other hand, since in theory witchcraft was a capital crime, the sentence he imposed of a year's imprisonment with four sessions in the pillory was relatively lenient.

[7] Despite much criticism of his conduct at the Islandmagee trials, he was later spoken of twice as Chief Justice of the Irish Common Pleas, but was passed over.

[8] Macartney married firstly Frances, daughter of Sir Anthony Irby and Catherine Paget, who died in 1684, and secondly Alice, daughter of Sir James Cuffe and his wife Alice Aungier, sister of Francis Aungier, 1st Earl of Longford, by whom he had a son, James Macartney junior.