James Balfour was a son of Sir Michael Balfour of
Denmilne, Fife, and Joanna Durham. Balfour was well acquainted with Sir
William Segar and with
William Dugdale, to whose
Monasticon he contributed. He was knighted by
King Charles I in 1630, was made
Lord Lyon King of Arms in the same year, and in 1633
baronet of Kinnaird. He was arbitrarily removed from his office of Lord Lyon by
Oliver Cromwell and died in 1657. Some of his numerous works are preserved in the
National Library of Scotland at
Edinburgh, together with his correspondence, from which rich collection James Haig published Balfour's
Annales of Scotland in four volumes (1824–1825).
James Maidment published papers from the collection on heraldic subjects and royal ceremonial. Balfour was an avid manuscript collector. Many of his manuscripts was purchased by the
Faculty of Advocates in 1698 and are now in the National Library of Scotland. ==Arms==