Sir James Nicolas Sutherland Matheson, 1st Baronet, FRS (17 November 1796 – 31 December 1878), was a Scottish opium trader and taipan.

[7] Jardine's lobbying efforts proved more effective than his partner's and he succeeded in persuading the new British Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston to wage war on Qing China.

The subsequent First Opium War led to the Treaty of Nanking which allowed Jardine Matheson to expand from Canton to Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The committee members represented a wide section of the business and missionary community in Canton: David Olyphant, William Wetmore, James Innes, Thomas Fox, Elijah Coleman Bridgman, Karl Gützlaff and John Robert Morrison.

John Francis Davis, at that time chief superintendent of British trade in China, was made an honorary member.

[11] In 1844 Matheson bought the Scottish Isle of Lewis for over half a million pounds and built Lews Castle, near Stornoway, clearing more than 500 families off the land by arranging their emigration to Canada.

[14] He became Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashburton from 1843 to 1852 on the death of William Jardine (the previous incumbent) and for Ross and Cromarty from 1852 to 1868.

He led an active public life into his eighth decade, and for many years served as chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

The Lewis estate passed to his widow and subsequently to his nephew Donald (1819-1901) and great-nephew Colonel Duncan Matheson (1850-1930).