James Leith Bain was born at his parents' house on Inverness Road, Pitlochry within the Parish of Moulin, Perthshire on 21 November 1860 to a John Bain (Colporteur) and a Margaret Leith. His parents had married on 1 November 1855 in Nairn Burgh, Nairnshire. James' siblings, also born in Pitlochry, were a John Jnr. (10 August 1856), Mary (9 October 1858), and Margaret (6 April 1863). John Bain Snr. had been born in Edinburgh Parish on 20 October 1826 to a John Bain (Shoemaker) and a Mary Campbell, while Margaret Leith had been born on 1 July 1833 at Boharm, Banffshire to an Isabella Leith.[1]
By 1871, James Leith Bain, aged 10 years, was a scholar living with his parents and siblings at 1, Oakfield Terrace, Pitlochry. However, in the 1881 Census he is shown to be a Student of Arts living in Jane Bow's Lodging House at 5, Glen Street, Edinburgh.
According to a young friend of his youth in Oakfield Terrace, John Smeaton Smith[2] (Vice-President of the Glasgow Orpheus Choir from 1926–51), James, before his student days in Edinburgh, had been a Pupil Teacher in a Pitlochry school, and thereafter had attended both the Edinburgh Free Church College and the Edinburgh Established Church College, with a view to becoming a Minister of Religion. He gained practical experience during this time by preaching in Argyllshire as well as Pitlochry and neighbouring Blair Athol.[3]
