Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet

Sir James Hunter Blair, 1st Baronet FRSE (February 1741 – 1 July 1787) was a Scottish banker, landowner and politician.

In 1756 he was apprenticed to Messrs Coutts, bankers in Edinburgh and in 1763 became a partner in the banking company of Sir William Forbes, and acquired the estate of Robertland.

As Lord Provost, he carried through various reforms, including the beginning of work on rebuilding the University and the construction of South Bridge, over the Cowgate.

[3][1] The foundation stone of this bridge was laid by Lord Haddo, as Grand Master Mason of Scotland in 1785, after Parliament had passed an Act giving permission for the plans to be executed.

On his death, Burns drafted an elegy, beginning: "he lamp of day, with ill-presaging glare", which extols rather laboriously Blair's public virtues.

Burns called it "just mediocre",[3] but Ferguson describes it as "the disastrous Elegy on the Death of Sir James Hunter Blair".