James Chaloner (d. 1660), Governor of the Isle of Man under the Commonwealth and the first writer to give a usable account of the Island.

He came to Manx business as an administrator. When the conquest of the Island was complete, Thomas Lord Fairfax asserted his right under the Act of Parliament and appointed Chaloner, William Steane and John Rushworth commissioners to enquire into his estate in the Island and its yearly value. On 4 December 1651 the three of them deputed Captains Eaton and Beale to make the enquiries and to give the tenants notice of Lord Fairfax's right. On 17 August 1652 Fairfax named a fresh commission for governing the Isle: Chaloner, Robert Dynely, and Joshua Witton, minister of the gospel. The Council of State in London dealt with him directly, conferring with him on the condition of the Island as to its civil government and its security against an enemy. He was Governor from 1658 to 1660.

The Commonwealth changed less than might be supposed. Parliament kept a military force on the Island and made the Governor an allowance as its commander, besides the pay of a captain, and the monarchical form of government was continued.

His book came out of the commission. A Short Treatise of the Isle of Man, digested into six chapters, was dedicated to Fairfax as Lord of Man and of the Isles and dated from Middle Park on 1 December 1653. It treats the Island itself, the inhabitants, the state ecclesiastical, the civil government, the trade, and the strength of the Island, and was printed in London in 1656 by John Streater as an appendix to King's Vale Royal of England, with a map, eight small views and the arms of the Island and of Lord Fairfax. The edition of Seacome printed at Preston in 1793 says plainly that nobody had given any tolerable account of the Isle of Man before Chaloner and William Blundell of Crosby. The Manx Society reprinted the treatise as its tenth volume.

He was hard on the Quakers. In 1656 William Callow and Evan Christian were severely imprisoned in Peel Castle, the one for refusing to pay sixteen pence and the other twopence demanded by a priest for the bread and wine of the sacrament, and similar cases are recorded down to 1659. Chaloner as Governor was heard to say that he would quickly rid the Island of Quakers.