Lieutenant-Colonel James Drummond-Buller-Fullerton-Elphinstone (1788-1857) was the youngest son of The Hon. William Fullerton-Elphinstone (son of Charles Elphinstone, 10th Lord Elphinstone) and Elizabeth Fullerton (d. 1834). He was married twice; first to Diana Maria Clavering, daughter of Charles John Clavering, on 30 September 1820; secondly to Anna Maria Buller, daughter of Admiral Sir Edward Buller, 1st Bt. and Gertrude van Courlandt, on 25 February 1824, with whom he had eight children. In 1810 he entered the Army as Cornet in the 7th Hussars. The following year he was promoted to Lieutenant and, in 1814, to Captain. He was wounded at the Battle of Waterloo and taken prisoner at Quatre Bras where he met Napoleon. He was placed on half-pay as Lieutenant-Colonel and joined the 4th Batallion of the West India Regiment in 1818.
Three records of the Elphinstone family are entered in George Engleheart's fee book: 1795 Mr C. Elphinston[e]; 1798 Captain Elphinston[e], and 1808 Captain Elphinstone (see G. C. Williamson / H. L. D. Engleheart, George Engleheart 1750-1829, Miniature Painter to George III, London, 1902, p. 95). The present lot formed part of a group of miniatures by Engleheart depicting the children of The Hon. William Fullerton-Elphinstone, 2nd son of Charles, 10th Baron Elphinstone (1740-1834) and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1834), eldest daughter of William Fullerton of Carstairs, Co. Lanark. On the death of her uncle, John Fullerton of Carberry, the additional surname of Fullerton was assumed before that of Elphinstone. This group, which was sold Christie's, London, 11 May 1994, comprised portraits of John Fullerton-Elphinstone (1784-1854) as lot 83; Charles Fullerton-Elphinstone (1780-1807) as lots 84 and 85; Major-General William George Keith Fullerton-Elphinstone (1782-1842) as lot 87, now in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh (inv. no. PG 2951). The present miniature was lot 86.