James Magee (sea captain)

James Magee (1750–1801) was one of the first Americans involved in the Old China Trade and the Maritime Fur Trade. He was born in County Down, Ireland, probably near Downpatrick. James and his brother Bernard immigrated to New England shortly before the American Revolutionary War Described as a "convivial, noble–hearted Irishman", he married Margaret Elliot, sister of Thomas Handasyd Perkins (T.H. Perkins), in October 1783. Magee lived in Roxbury, today part of Boston, ultimately in the Shirley–Eustis House, which he bought in 1798. His brother, Bernard Magee, was also a sea captain in the maritime fur trade. James Magee had three sons: James Magee Jr., Charles Eliott Magee and Augustus Magee. Augustus Magee led the 1812-13 Gutierrez-Magee Expedition, a filibuster in Spanish Texas that briefly liberated that province during the Mexican War of Independence.