James Macrae (1677 – July 1744) was a Scottish seaman and administrator who served as the President of Fort St George from 1725 to 1730.

[1] Macrae's father died when he was barely five years old and the family moved to the town of Ayr where they lived in a thatched hut.

[1] James Talboys Wheeler, writes that Macrae was "tired of this monotonous life" and "with the energy he showed then he would have assimilated the passionate desire to embark in commercial ventures of the time"[1] More prosaically, Dr. Eric J. Graham, Scottish historian specializing in maritime history, concludes that embarking at sea in 1692, "Macrae fled a life close to starvation".

While functioning as the skipper of the Cassandra, Macrae encountered the fabled pirate Edward England near the Comoros on 17 August 1720.

During a naval battle which lasted over three hours, Macrae and his men killed about a hundred of England's pirates who numbered about 500.

The East India Company, impressed by the Macrae's abilities appointed him Superintendent in 1723, to investigate and end the chronic corruption that affected the English settlements on the west coast of Sumatra.

In terms of public health, he launched a study of the city and its surroundings in order to reduce the high mortality rate.

[5] On 24 September 1726, King George I issued a charter giving judicial powers to the Madras city administration.

[5] As per the charter, the mayor and aldermen of Madras were made a Court of Record and were authorized to handle civil suits.

Macrae also exposed the corrupt practises of the Deputy Governor of Bencoolen & Sumatra, Joseph George Walsh, who had tampered with official accounts.