Captain James Murison MLC (c. 1816 - 1885) was an influential member of the Legislative Council of the Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope.

He and his brother Gordon were among those who attempted in 1850 to establish the "Cape Chamber of Commerce" to provide an alternative to the older Commercial Exchange which was controlled by larger businesses.

Murison's brothers Andrew and George took James's opposition to monopolies to the extreme and, in their fight against the monopoly on the guano trade from the Penguin Islands, they actually organised a fighting force armed with pistols and cutlasses, sailed to Ichaboe and attacked the trading outposts there.

A famous and characterful figure locally, Murison was dubbed the "figurehead of Table Mountain, a prince among men" and "public-spirited, incorruptible and generous".

In his political office, he was one of the MPs which the right wing newspapers of the time disparagingly dubbed "the Malays", due to their relying substantially or mostly on the Muslim electorate of Cape Town.