James Kirkland (fl. 1730) was an Irish giant and a member of the Potsdam Giants who served under Frederick William I of Prussia, known as the “Soldier King”. He was 217 centimetres (7 feet 1 inch) tall, and was a native of Ballygar, Ardagh, County Longford. Kirkland was in 1730 a footman to Baron Borck, at the time Prussian Ambassador to London. Borck, however, did not really need a footman, and had Kirkland forcibly impressed upon a Prussian ship at Portsmouth, where he was press-ganged into the Potsdam Guards. A portrait of Kirkland survives.