James Umpherston (1812 – 28 October 1900) was a farmer and politician, a noted settler of Mount Gambier, South Australia.
Umpherston was born in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, Scotland, and worked as a farmer until he emigrated to South Australia on the Ariadne, arriving in August 1839.
He next took up land at Attamurra, 4 miles (6.4 km) north-east of Mount Gambier, naming his property "Cadzow", later owned by John Kennedy.
He was elected to the South Australian House of Assembly seat of Victoria in December 1866 at the by-election brought about by the resignation of Adam Lindsay Gordon, with John Riddoch of Yallum as colleague, and retired in May 1868, succeeded by Henry Kent Hughes.
He had three brothers and a sister who immigrated to South Australia between 1849 and 1870: He was appointed Justice of the Peace at Mount Gambier in 1861,[6] He was a member of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Adelaide from its earliest days, and kept up his membership of it to the last, and when he moved to the South-East he helped establish a local Agricultural, Pastoral and Horticultural Society, and was its first President.