James Ware FRS FSA (1756–1815) was an English eye surgeon, and Fellow of the Royal Society, who practiced in London during the Georgian era.

During this period, he worked with surgeons at the Haslar Naval Hospital, assisting in treatments of the many accidents that were frequent occurrences in the shipyards.

Wathen, Ware and Phipps were the three foremost eye doctors practicing in London during the latter part of the Georgian era, and they are credited with raising ophthalmology from a vocation of quacks and charlatans, rife with malpractice, into a legitimate branch of modern medical science.

He was also one of the founders in 1800 of the School for the Indigent Blind, which was modeled after a similar institution established ten years earlier at Liverpool.

[1] Ware was also elected on 11 March 1802 as a Fellow of the Royal Society, being the first "oculist" so admitted, which greatly contributed to the recognition of ophthalmic surgery as a science.