Sea Captain James Abercrombie (1717-1760) was born 22 December 1717 at Dundee, Scotland, third son of James Abercrombie and Janet Maxwell.

He sailed regularly to Philadelphia, Charleston, South Carolina and Cowes, England beginning in 1742 as master of the ship Lydia. The Lydia was plundered at sea by French ships in July 1744 after which it was taken at sea by the Spanish in August 1744.

In October 1744 the SC Gazette reported that the sea captain had been returned to Charleston along with Alexander Abercromby, brother of the South Carolina attorney general, following an exchange of prisoners with the Spanish at Havana, Cuba.

From 1748 to 1753 James Abercrombie (1717-1760) was master of the ship St. Andrew, and from 1754 to 1755 of the Peggy. He made his final voyage to Charleston from Madeira, arriving in April 1760 on the Charming Peggy and leaving in June for Scotland.

On 30 October 1760 his ship and all the crew were lost in the German Ocean near the mouth of the River Elbe.

On his voyages he brought many Palatines to Philadelphia and on his final voyage to Charleston, South Carolina from Madeira he brought wine for sale at Charleston.

His will, made at Philadelphia on 11 December 1758, was proved at the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, London on 23 July 1761. His will named his wife Margaret, son James, brother David Abercrombie and sister Janet Abercrombie. It also named friends Charles and Alexander Stedman and Samuel McCall, Jr. of Philadelphia and John Stedman, son of Alexander Stedman.

James Abercrombie (1717-1760) married Janet Stedman at Rotterdam, Holland on 13 May 1744. They had a daughter, Peggy Abercrombie, born at Rotterdam on 8 February 1747 [1748 new style] who apparently had died by the time that he made his will.

On 27 November 1753 he married Margaret Bennet (1728-1803) at Philadelphia. They had a daughter in 1756 who died in infancy and a son, James Abercrombie (1758-1841), both born at Philadelphia.

In 1754 he was a member of the St. Andrew’s Society of Philadelphia, which was founded in 1749 and patterned on the organization of that name at Charleston, South Carolina.

In 1758 he built a townhouse in Philadelphia which survives at 270 South Second Street.

In 1767 his widow, Margaret Bennet Abercrombie, married Charles Stedman at Philadelphia. The relationship of this Charles Stedman to the man of that name who was commissary to the British Army during the War of Independence and later, in 1794, from London published the British view of the war as The History of the Origins, Progress and Termination of the American War is unknown.