James Lindsay was born on 24 April 1783 at Balcarres House in Fife, the son of Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres and inherited the title of 7th Earl of Balcarres on his father's death in 1825. In 1826 he was created Baron of Wigan in the Peerage of Great Britain. In 1843 he claimed the abeyant title of Earl of Crawford and in 1848 the House of Lords allowed the claim and conferred on him the title of 24th Earl of Crawford, and by extension, the title of 23rd Earl of Crawford on his dead father. He was subsequently commissioned into the British Army and attained the rank of major in the 20th Light Dragoons until he left in 1804. He was returned as Tory MP for Wigan from 1820 to 1825.^{[citation needed]}

After the Slave Compensation Act 1837 was passed, he successfully claimed one third of the compensation given out by the British government for the Army's practise of hiring slaves in Jamaica as temporary labourers from the partnership Atkinson & Hozier. The Army contract had been negotiated by his father when he had served as the governor of Jamaica.^[1] He designed Haigh Hall in Haigh, Greater Manchester, to replace the then-existing hall which dated back to Norman times and lived in a cottage in the grounds whilst it was constructed between 1830 and 1849. The family owned Haigh Colliery, cannel and coal mines, and formed the Wigan Coal and Iron Company in 1865. After his death on 23 December 1869 he was buried at All Saints' Church, Wigan, Lancashire, and succeeded by his eldest son, Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford.

On 21 November 1811 at Muncaster in Cumberland (now Cumbria), Crawford married the Hon Maria Margaret Frances Pennington, daughter of John Pennington, 1st Baron Muncaster. They had four sons:

• Alexander William Crawford Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (16 October 1812 - 13 December 1880)
• Lt Gen Hon Sir James Lindsay (25 August 1815 - 13 August 1874)
• Colonel Hon Charles Hugh Lindsay (11 November 1816 - 25 March 1889)
• Hon Colin Lindsay (6 December 1819 - 28 January 1892)

Eldest son Alexander's genealogical research had enabled his father to claim the title of Earl of Crawford which had fallen into abeyance.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages ^{[self-published source] [better source needed]}
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs
• Balcarres Family

• Lindsay, Lord Alexander Lindsay, 25th Earl of Crawford (1855), Report of the Speeches of Counsel, and of the Lord Chancellor and Lord St. Leonards in Moving the Resolution, upon the Claim of James Earl of Crawford and Balcarres to the Original Dukedom of Montrose (created in 1488), as Referred to the House of Lords by Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen, for Their Advice and Opinion thereupon: Preceded by an Address to Her Majesty, in Humble Remonstrance against the Opinion Reported to Her Majesty; and by an Analysis of the Argument as between the Claimant and the Officers Representing the Crown, with the Opinions of the Committee of Privileges, Point by Point, throughout; and Followed by an Appendix, Containing the Leading Arguments Adduced and Referred to, and the Oral Evidence Delivered, by and on behalf of the Claimant and the Crown, in this Case, London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, OCLC 67232132{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link).
• Barker, Nicolas (1978), Bibliotheca Lindesiana: The Lives and Collections of Alexander William, 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres, and James Ludovic, 26th Earl of Crawford and 9th Earl of Balcarres (2nd corrected ed.), London: For Presentation to the Roxburghe Club, and published by Bernard Quaritch, OCLC 931340384.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Crawford