James Burnie Beck was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1822. He immigrated to Kentucky in 1843 and became a manager and foreman on the farm of Drummond Hunt in Fayette County. In 1845, he left to attend school, and graduated from law school at Translyvania University, Lexington, Kentucky. He practiced law at Lexington. Active in politics, he served in the United States House of Representatives and in the Senate. He died at Washington, D.C., in 1890 and was buried at Lexington. He was survived by a daughter, Mrs. Green Clay Goodloe.