James Wilson was an 18th-century songwriter from Hexham, Northumberland.

James Wilson was a schoolteacher by trade.^[1]

After spending some time teaching in Hexham, he suffered financial embarrassment and had to move away.

He chose Morpeth, where he met a fellow schoolteacher, who was also a poet and songwriter, Wallis Ogle, who managed to find him a post at Causey Park Bridge School (spelt "Cawsey" in John Bell's Rhymes of Northern Bards), where shortly after he died.^[ambiguous]

He was a poet and songwriter and had 4 songs published in Bell's Rhymes of Northern Bards in 1812.

While living in Morpeth he collected together some of his works into a volume and they were published in a chapbook printed by T Angus, Newcastle in 1778.

These include:

• The Banks of the Tyne^[1]
• A Few Lines on Laying the Foundation Stone of Hexham Bridge^[1]
• Ode - "Addressed to Sir Walter Blackett, Bart." - was "wrote" by the author on the very day the building of Hexham Bridge was undertaken^[1]
• A Song by Mr James Wilson of Cawsey Park on Mr Coughan and family, leaving Hebron Hill^[1]

• Geordie dialect words
• Rhymes of Northern Bards

• Rhymes of Northern Bards