James Esdaile (mayor)

Sir James Esdaile (c. 1714 – c. 1793) was an English banker who served as the Lord Mayor of London in 1777. His grandfather was a French nobleman and Huguenot from the De l'Estoile family who fled from the Kingdom of France in an attempt to avoid persecution by Louis XIV. Esdaile also served as sheriff of London in 1767. His daughter, Louisa married the politician Benjamin Hammet, who subsequently became a protege of Esdaile's. In 1781, he took Hammet into his banking firm, which became known as 'Esdaile and Hammet'. Esdaile died in 1793.

A c. 1793 mezzotint of Esdaile