Margetson, James (1600–78), Church of Ireland archbishop of Armagh, was born in Drighlington, Yorkshire. He matriculated at Peterhouse, Cambridge in 1619, going on to graduate BA in 1623 and MA in 1626. Ordained a priest 25 December 1626, he was appointed to the parish of Watlas, Yorkshire, where he attracted the attention of Sir Thomas Wentworth (qv). In 1633 Margetson accompanied Wentworth, by then lord deputy of Ireland, to Dublin as his chaplain. There, he served as dean of Waterford (25 May 1635), rector of Annagh in Cavan (October 1635–1637), rector of Galloon in Monaghan (1637), dean of Derry (1638–9), prebend of Cork (1639), and dean of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin (1639). In 1637, he was incorporated DD at Trinity College Dublin and in 1640 he was appointed prolocutor of the lower house of convocation. Promotion to a bishopric would have followed in due course, but for the outbreak of rebellion in autumn 1641. He spent large sums of money providing food and shelter for protestant refugees from the rest of the country. Deprived of his income by the wars, Margetson was himself in financial straits before long and appears to have spent eighteen months away from Dublin, probably in England. He strongly supported James Butler (qv), marquess of Ormond and royalist lord lieutenant of Ireland from 1644, signing a declaration in August 1646 congratulating Ormond on signing peace terms with the catholic confederacy. When Dublin came under parliament's control in 1647, Margetson, along with eighteen other clergymen, signed in July a declaration requesting that they be allowed to worship according to the Book of Common Prayer.
In the autumn of 1647 he fled to England, but he was imprisoned in Manchester. He was released after several months in a prisoner exchange and settled in London, where he lived in great poverty. Before fleeing Dublin, his last act as dean of Christ Church had been to order the concealment of all the ornaments and records of the cathedral. In June 1650, republican authorities sought to question him as to the whereabouts of these items, but he appears to have revealed nothing and they remained undiscovered until the fall of the republic when they were returned to the cathedral. During the 1650s royalist groups employed him to provide relief for royalists who had fallen on hard times. He toured England and Wales dispensing funds to royalist clergy and former royalist soldiers.
The restoration of the monarchy in 1660 heralded a revival in his fortunes. By the end of June his name was on the list of episcopal appointees for Ireland; he was consecrated archbishop of Dublin on 27 January 1661, two days after formal appointment to the Irish privy council. He was also restored to his livings at Galloon and Cork, and made treasurer of St Patrick's cathedral, Dublin. In July 1663 he was appointed archbishop of Armagh, apparently on the deathbed recommendation of his predecessor, John Bramhall (qv). He subsequently became the king's almoner on 7 November 1663 and vice-chancellor of Dublin University in 1667.
His views on religious matters were substantially those of his patron Ormond, who was viceroy of Ireland once again from 1662. Both men rigidly upheld the restored protestant and episcopalian state church while being prepared to tolerate those catholics and protestant non-conformists who showed they constituted no political threat to the new ecclesiastical dispensation. Although on occasion he protested at the boldness of the catholic and presbyterian clergy, he generally turned a blind eye to religious dissent. In 1670 he met at least twice with the catholic primate of Ireland, Oliver Plunkett (qv), and permitted him to establish Jesuit schools in Armagh diocese. He also favoured the remonstrants, a faction of the catholic clergy in Ireland who swore loyalty to the king in a manner that infringed on the temporal powers claimed by the pope. Similarly, he intervened in 1670 to prevent the bishop of Down and Connor from prosecuting presbyterians. When John Lord Berkeley (qv) served as lord lieutenant of Ireland (1670–72), his relations with Margetson were poor, though Margetson appears to have got on better with Berkeley's replacement Arthur Capel (qv), earl of Essex.
As primate, Margetson dedicated himself to restoring the damage done to church property between 1641 and 1660. He raised funds to rebuild Armagh cathedral and met the resulting shortfall out of his own pocket. Throughout his life he had been characterised by his generous nature and he spent large sums on endowing schools and churches. Such was his reputation that many gathered at his deathbed to receive his last blessing. But his charitable nature did not cause him to neglect his own finances; his income from his clerical salaries alone came to £3,500 a year in 1668 and he left £4,000 apiece to two of his children. He developed jaundice in late 1677 and died 28 August 1678 in Dublin, after a long and painful illness. He was buried in Christchurch cathedral. His children included James, rector of Little Stukeley in the diocese of Ely, John who became a major in the army of William III (qv) and was killed at the siege of Limerick, and Anne, who married Viscount Charlemont.