The sixth child of James McAuslan and Christian Ritchie was James. His birth record, if it exists, has not yet been located.

At the time of the 1851 census, James was living in the family home in Susannah Street, Alexandria, and was entered as a draper’s clerk, aged 22, born in Glasgow.

It was almost certainly the same James McAslan, the baby’s uncle, stated to have been present, who acted as informant when sister Janet McAuslan’s son John Steele was born in 1855.