James Bethune may refer to: James Beaton (or Bethune) (1473–1539), Scottish Roman Catholic bishop and Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland James Bethune (politician) (1840–1884), Canadian politician James Gray Bethune (1793–1841), Canadian businessman and judge James Lindesay-Bethune, 16th Earl of Lindsay (born 1955), Scottish businessman and politician James Neil Bethune (died 1884), American lawyer who held Blind Tom Wiggins in slavery