James Philcox (22 January 1812 – 31 March 1893) was an English land speculator and property developer in the 1840s and 1850s in the colony of South Australia.
[2][3] Philcox, wife Ann and a child arrived in South Australia aboard the barque Fortitude on 5 April 1842, along with W.P.
[4][5] In February 1845 his name is listed in a petition, along with 1674 other "memorialists" who were opposing a plan to start transporting convicts to the new colony of South Australia.
[10][11] On 25 September 1848, Philcox purchased 20 acres (8.1 ha) adjacent to the land of George Brunskill who laid out the "Village of Marryatville".
[14] In 1850 Philcox named sections 3220 and 3221 in the Hundred of Munno Para, creating the town of Evanston, now an outer northern suburb of Adelaide.
[3] His name appears as a buyer and owner of many properties between 1852 and 1853, in the city of Adelaide and also in the County of Frome, near Mount Remarkable in the Flinders Ranges area.
Also aboard was businessman Alexander Lang Elder, and the first Anglican bishop of Adelaide, Augustus Short, and his family.
[3] However, Manning's Place Names of South Australia From Aaron Creek to Zion Hill (2006) mentions an unnamed descendant who had sold land in the Adelaide suburb of Hampstead Gardens (part of section 489 in the Hundred of Yatala) to Clearview Ltd (founder of Clearview, South Australia).