GRÆME or GRAHAM,
a surname said to be derived from the Gaelic word grumach,
applied to a person of a stern countenance and manner, hence the
Gothic term grim. It is more likely to have originated in the British
word grym, signifying strength, hence grime’s dyke,
erroneously called Graham’s dyke, the name popular given to the wall
of Antoninus, from an absurd fable of Fordun and Boece, that one
Greme, traditionally said to have governed Scotland during the
minority of Eugene the Second, broke through the mighty rampart
erected by the Romans between the rivers Forth and Clyde. It is
unfortunate for this fiction, and for the suppositious Gaelic origin
of the name, that the first authenticated person who bor it in North
Britain was Sir William de Graeme (the undoubted ancestor of the dukes
of Montrose and all “the gallant Grahams” in this country), who came
to Scotland in the reign of David the First, from whom he received the
lands of Abercorn and Dalkeith, and witnessed the charter of that
monarch to the monks of the abbey of Holyrood in 1128. In Gaelic
grim means war, battle. Anciently, the word Grimes-dike was
applied to trenches, roads, and boundaries, and was not confined to
Scotland. Chalmers remarks that if Graham be the proper spelling of
the name, it may be said to be a compound of Gray-ham, the dwelling of
Gray; but if it be Graeme, it is a genuine Saxon word
signifying angry, fierce. Gram and Grim were English names, hence
Grimby, Grimsthorp, &c. One of the Orkney Islands is named
Graemsey. Graham is the spelling of the name of the witness in
the charter of Holyroodhouse.
This
Anglo-Norman knight, Sir William de Graham, had two sons, Peter and
John, in whom the direct line was carried on. The elder, Peter de
Graham, styled of Dalkeith and Abercorn, had also two sons, Henry and
William. Henry, the elder, witnessed some of the charters of King
William the Lion. He was succeeded by his son Henry, whose son, also
named Henry, by marrying the daughter of Roger Avenel (who died in
1243), acquired the extensive estates of Avenel, in Eskdale. He was
one of the magnates Scotiae in the parliament of Scone 5th
February 1283-4, who bound themselves, by their oaths and seals, to
receive and acknowledge as their sovereign, the princess Margaret of
Norway, the grand-daughter of Alexander the Third, in the event of
that monarch’s death without issue.
His son, Sir
Nicholas de Graham, sat in the parliament at Brigham, now Brigham, in
Berwickshire, in 1290, when the treaty was signed for the marriage
between Prince Edward of England and the infant Maiden of Norway. In
1292 he was one of the nominees of Bruce the competitor, when he
became a candidate for the vacant crown. In 1296 he swore fealty to
Edward the First of England, being designed of the county of
Linlithgow, his lands of Abercorn being in that county. His son, Sir
John de Graham of Dalkeith, had a son, John de Graham, who, dying
without issue, was the last of the elder line of the original stock of
the Grahams. He had two sisters, his heiresses, – the one, married to
William More, who obtained with her the lands of Abercorn; and the
other, Margaret, becoming the wife of William Douglas of Lugton,
ancestor of the earls of Morton, conveyed to him Dalkeith and the vast
property of the Avenels in Eskdale. The former (Dalkeith) came into
possession of the Buccleuch family in 1642, by purchase from the then
earl of Morton, and gives the title of earl to that ducal house.
The male
line of the family was carried on by the younger son of Sir William de
Graham first above mentioned, John de Graham, whose son, David de
Graham, obtained from his cousin, Henry, the son of Peter de Graham,
the lands of Clifton and Clifton Hall in Mid Lothian, and from King
William the Lion those of Charlton and Barrowfield, as well as the
lordship of Kinnaber, all in Forfarshire. This was the first
connection of the family with the district near Montrose, whence they
subsequently derived their ducal title. His eldest son, also named Sir
David de Graham, had, from Patrick, earl of Dunbar, in the reign of
King Alexander the Second, with other lands, those of Dundaff in
Stirlingshire, and in 1244 he was one of the guarantees of a truce
entered into between King Alexander the Second and Henry the Third of
England, who, after the accession of Alexander the Third, a boy of
only nine years of age, to the throne, began that systematic attempt
on the kingdom of Scotland, which afterwards under Edward the First
brought so much calamity on the country. The policy of Henry, during
the minority of the king, who had married his daughter, the princess
Margaret, was to sow dissensions among the nobility, and he succeeded
in forming a party among them favourable to English interests. To this
party the Grahams did not belong, and the son of the Sir David de
Graham last mentioned, also named Sir David de Graham, who appears to
have held the office of sheriff of the county of Berwick, was one of
the Anti-Anglican or Comyn party who were removed from the
administration of affairs, on 21st September 1255, when,
under the influence of Henry, a regency was appointed, with the
custody of the young king and the government of the country, till
Alexander should attain majority. From Malise earl of Strathearn he
acquired the lands of Kincardine in Perthshire, which became one of
the chief designations of the family. He died about 1270. By his wife,
Annabella, daughter of Robert, earl of Strathearn, he had three sons,
namely, Sir Patrick, who succeeded him; the celebrated Sir John the
Graham, the companion of Wallace, a notice of whom is given below; and
Sir David, one of the nominees, his eldest brother being another, of
Baliol in his competition for the crown of Scotland, 5th
June 1292. Both brothers swore fealty to Edward the same year. This
act of homage, however, as in the case of many others of the Scots
nobles, was a forced one, as in 1296 Sir David was taken prisoner by
the English monarch, with his nephew Sir David de Graham. They were
released on 30th July 1297, on condition of serving Edward
in his wars against France. The lands of Loveth or Lovat, in
Inverness-shire, which subsequently became the property of the Frasers,
were among the possessions of this Sir David de Graham.
The eldest
son, Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, was in 1281, sent to negotiate
the marriage of Alexander prince of Scotland with Margaret, daughter
of Guy earl fo Flanders, which took place the following year. That
young prince, however, died 12th January 1283-4, and Sir
Patrick sat in the general council at Scone, 5th February
following, in which the crown was settled on the princess of Norway,
granddaughter of Alexander the Third. He was also one of the assembly
at Brigham in 1290, that agreed to the marriage treaty between the
young queen Margaret, who died on her voyage to Scotland, and the
prince of Wales, the son of Edward the First. He fell in battle
against the English at Dunbar, 28th April 1296. Hemingford,
the English chronicler, says of him in Latin that he was a stout
knight, the wisest among the wise in council, and among the noblest
the most noble.
His son, Sir
David de Graham, a favourite name among the early Grahams, was also
designed of Kincardine. He was a strenuous asserter of the
independence of Scotland, and a faithful adherent of Robert the Bruce.
He was one of the persons excepted out of the general conditions of
the pacification made by Edward with the Scots, 9th
February 1303-4, as it was provided that he should be banished fro
Scotland for six months. From Robert the First, in consideration of
his good and faithful services, he had several grants, and he
exchanged with that monarch his property of Cardross in Dumbartonshire
for the lands of “Old Montrose” in Forfarshire. He was one of the
nobles who, in 1320, signed the famous letter to the pope, asserting
the independence of Scotland, and in 1323 he was one of the guarantees
of a treaty with the English. He died in 1327. Among other persons of
the name who signed the letter to the pope were John de Graham and
Patrick de Graham, the latter styled Chevalier d’Escoce, who for his
adherence to Bruce was sent prisoner to England in 1303.
Sir David’s
son, also Sir David, styled of “Auld Monros,” accompanying king David
the Second in his unfortunate expedition to England in 1346, was taken
prisoner with that monarch at the battle of Durham 17th
October of that year. In 1354 he was one of the commissioners for
negotiating the ransom of the king, and one of his hostages, as was
also Sir Patrick his son. He died in 1364.
The son, Sir
Patrick Graham, of Dundaff and Kincardine, was a commissioner to treat
with the English, 30th August 1394, and died before 1404.
By a first wife, he had a son, Sir William, his successor, and a
daughter, Matilda, married to Sir John Drummond of Concraig. His
second wife was Egidia, daughter of Sir John Stewart of Ralston, the
brother of King Robert the Second. By this lady he had four sons.
Patrick, the eldest of these, by his marriage with Euphame Stewart,
countess palatine of Strathern, and countess of Caithness, became, in
her right, earl of Strathern (see STRATHERN, Earl of). From this
alliance their descendants quarter the royal arms of Stuart on their
shield, He was slain by his brother-in-law, Sir John Drummond of
Concraig, at Crieff, 10th August, 1413, and the principal
agents in his murder, Walter Oliphant and Arthur Oliphant, brothers,
were drawn and hanged for the crime.
Sir William
Graham of Kincardine, the eldest son, was frequently employed in
negociations with the English relative to the liberation of King James
the First. Like his father, he was twice married. By his first wife,
he had two sons, Alexander, who predeceased him, leaving two sons, and
John. His second wife was the princess Mary Stewart, second daughter
of King Robert the Second; widow of the earl of Angus and of Sir James
Kennedy of Dunure, and after Sir William Graham’s death she took for
her fourth husband Sir William Edmonstone of Duntreath. By this lady
he had five sons, namely, 1. Sir Robert Graham of Strathcarron,
ancestor of the Grahams of Fintry, of Claverhouse, and of Duntrune. 2.
Patrick Graham, consecrated bishop of Brechin, in 1463, and three
years after translated to the see of St. Andrews. He was brother of
the half-blood of the previous bishop, Kennedy, chancellor of the
kingdom, and is described as a worthy man and a prelate of primitive
simplicity. His election to the latter see was opposed by the Boyds,
who then ruled everything at court. The bishop, therefore, secretly
left the country for Rome, and there obtained his confirmation from
Pope Paul the Second. At this time (1471) the old controversy
concerning the claim of the archbishop of York to the supremacy over
the Scottish church was revived, and Graham was able to convince the
pope that it was utterly unfounded. He procured a bull erecting his
own see of St. Andrews into an archbishopric, and the twelve bishops
of Scotland were solemnly enjoined to be subject to it in all time
coming. He was farther appointed the pope’s legate in Scotland for
three years. His proceedings at Rome excited the displeasure of the
king and the envy of the clergy, while the nobility, fearing that he
would put a stop to the scandalous sale of church livings which had so
long prevailed, were also opposed to him. On his return to Scotland he
was summoned to answer for having intruded himself into the legation,
and for having carried on a negotiation with the papal court without
the knowledge or permission of the king, and in the meantime
interdicted from taking the title of archbishop or exercising the
office of legate. Sheviz, the archdeacon of St. Andrews, who had
obtained great influence over the mind of the king, by his skill in
judicial astrology, and who had an eye to the see for himself, forged
accusations against the archbishop, and agents were employed at Rome
for the purpose of charging him with heresy. His judges were bribed by
the clergy, and it is stated that an offer of eleven thousand merks
was made to the king himself to sway his mind against him. In the
midst of all this persecution he bore himself with meek and pious
fortitude; but it broke his heart at last, and threw him into a state
of distraction, from which he appears never to have recovered.
Procuring him to be declared insane, Sheviz obtained the custody of
his person. He was confined first in Inchcolm, and afterwards in the
castle of Lochleven, where he died in 1478. 3. William, ancestor of
the Grahams of Garvock in Perthshire, from a younger son of whom came
the Grahams of Balgowan, the most celebrated of which family was the
gallant Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, the hero of Barossa, of whom
a memoir is given hereafter in its place. 4. Henry, of whom nothing is
known. 5. Walter, of Wallacetown, Dumbartonshire, ancestor of the
Grahams of Knockdolian in Carrick, and their cadets.
Patrick
Graham, of Kincardine, the son of Alexander, the eldest son, succeeded
his grandfather, and was created a peer of parliament in 1451, under
the title of Lord Graham. He died in 1465. His only son, William,
second Lord Graham, married lady Anne Douglas, eldest daughter of the
fourth earl of Angus, and had two sons, William, third Lord Graham,
and George, ancestor of the Grahams of Calendar, and two daughters,
Jean, married to the second Lord Ogilvy of Airlie, and Christian,
married, first to James Haldane of Gleneagles, and secondly, to Sir
Thomas Maule of Panmure.
William,
third Lord Graham, sat in the first parliament of king James the
Fourth, 7th October, 1488; and on 3d March, 1504-5, he was
created earl of Montrose, a charter being granted to him, of that
date, of his hereditary lands of “Auld Montrose,” which were then
erected into a free barony and earldom, to be called the barony and
earldom of Montrose. It is from these lands, therefore, and not from
the town of Montrose, that the family take their titles of earl and
duke. [See MONTROSE, duke of]. He fell at the battle of Flodden, 9th
September 1513. He was thrice married. By his first wife, Annabella,
daughter of Lord Drummond, he had a son, second earl of Montrose; by
his second wife, Janet, a daughter of Sir Archibald Edmonstone of
Duntreath, he had three daughters; and by his third wife, Christian
Wavance of Segy, daughter of Thomas Wavance of Stevenston, and widow
of the ninth Lord Halyburton of Dirleton, two sons, Patrick, ancestor
of the Traemes of Inchbrakie, Perthshire, of whom afterwards; and
Adnres, consecrated bishop of Dunblane in 1575, and the first
protestant bishop of that see.
From the
third son of the second earl of Montrose came the Grahams of Orchil,
and from the fourth son the Grahams of Killearn. From the second son
of the third earl descended the Grahams of Braco, who once possessed a
baronetcy of Nova Scotia, conferred on the first of the family, 28th
September 1625. From the third son of the same earl, the Grahams of
Scottistoun derived their descent.\
The first of
the Graemes of Inchbrakie received that estate from his father, the
first ear of Montrose, with the lands of Fowlis and Aberuthven, also
in Perthshire, (charter dated 20th June 1513), and married
Margaret Stewart, granddaughter of the duke of Albany, brother of King
James the Fourth. His second son, George, archdeacon of Ross in 1575,
was ancestor of the Graemes of Drynie, Ross-shire. His grandson, John
Graeme, second son of his successor, was the first of the Grahams of
Bucklivie, and the younger brother of the latter, George, bishop of
Orkney in 1615, was ancestor, by two of his sons, of the Graemes of
Graham’s Hall, and the Graemes of Gorthy. Patrick Graeme of Inchbrakie,
the fifth laird, was the well known royalist officer, cousin of the
great marquis of Montrose, at whose house of Tullybelton, among the
hills near the Tay, that daring and chivalrous leader arrived in
disguise in 1644, and who accompanied him seventy miles, as his guide,
to Blair Athole, to raise his standard there in support of the king,
when he commanded the Athol Highlanders, and was known as Black Pate.”
In 1651 he was colonel of the Perthshire force, and on account of his
adherence to the royal cause he suffered great losses, and his castle
of Inchbrakie was burned by Cromwell. He himself was outlawed and
imprisoned, and was only released on the earl of Tullybardine and Lord
Drummond signing a bail bond for him, in 1654, that he “should do
nothing to hurt the commonwealth of England nor their armies in
Scotland.” Major George Drummond Graeme, tenth proprietor of
Inchbrakie isn a direct line, fought n the Peninsular war, and was
severely wounded at Waterloo. He subsequently served in the Hanoverian
guards, and in 1816 was created a knight of the Guelphic order. He
also had conferred on him the gold cross of William the Fourth and the
Hanoverian Peninsular medal.
_____
The Grahams
of the borders are descended from Sir John Graham of Killbryde,
called, from his bravery, Sir John “with the bright sword,” second son
of Malise, earl first of Strathern, and afterwards of Menteith, by his
wife, the Lady Ann Vere, daughter of Henry, earl of Oxford. The
principal families that derive from him are those of Esk and Netherby,
which both possess baronetcies, and the Grahams of Plomp, their
progenitors having settled in what was called “the debatable land,” a
territory consisting of that portion of Cumberland lying immediately
to the south of the river Esk and the Solway Firth, and so named from
being a constant scene of strife between the Scottish and English
borderers. The first baronet of Esk, who fought on the king’s side,
and was wounded at the battle of Edgehill, purchased the estate of
Netherby and the barony of Liddell from the earl of Cumberland. His
grandson, the third baronet, also Sir Richard Graham, was created in
1680 Viscount Preston in the Scottish peerage (see PRESTON, viscount
of), and on the death of the third viscount without issue in 1739,
when the title became extinct, his extensive estates devolved on his
two aunts, the last survivor of whom, Lady Widdington, devised them by
will, in 1757, to the Rev Robert Graham, D.D., grandson of Sir George
Graham, second baronet of Esk, and father of James Graham of Netherby,
created a baronet 28th December 1782, and whose son is the
Right Hon. Sir James Robert George Graham of Netherby, first lord of
the Admiralty (1854). Richard, the younger son of Sir Richard Graham,
the first baronet of Esk, was created a baronet in 1662, and was the
founder of the house of Norton-Conyers, Yorkshire. The Grahams of
Kirkstall, in the same county, who also possess a baronetcy, conferred
in 1808, are descended from a branch of the Grahams of Esk. No
Scottish family of the name now possesses a baronetcy.
Sir John
“with the bright sword,” was also ancestor of the Grahams of Gartmore
in Perthshire. Sir William Graham of Gartmore, created a baronet of
Nova Scotia, in 1665, married Elizabeth, second daughter of John
Graham, Lord Kilpont, (son of the earl of Airth) who was slain by one
of his own vassals, James Stuart of Ardvoirlich, in the camp of the
marquis of Montrose, in 1644; and had a son, Sir John Graham, second
baronet of Gartmore, declared insane in 1696. On his death, 12th
July 1708, without issue, the baronetcy became extinct, and the
representation of the family devolved upon his sister Mary, wife of
James Hodge, Esq. of Gladsmuir, advocate. Their only daughter, Mary
Hodge, married, in 1701, William, son of John Graham of Callingod, and
had a son, William Graham, who assumed the title of earl of Menteith.
The castle
of Kilbryde, near Dunblane, built by Sir John “with the bright sword,”
in 1460, was possessed by his representatives, the earls of Menteith,
till 1640, when it was sold. The Menteith Grahams were called the
Grahams “of the hens,” from the following circumstance. An armed party
of the Stewarts of Appin, headed by Donald Nan Ord, called Donald of
the Hammer, in their retreat from the disastrous field of Pinkie in
1547, in passing the lake of Menteith, stopped at a house of the earl
fo Menteith, where a large feast, consisting principally of poultry,
was prepared for a marriage party, and ate up all the provisions; but,
being immediately pursued, they were overtaken in the gorge of a pass,
near a rock called Craig-Vad, or the Worf’s cliff, where a bloody
encounter took place. The earl and nearly the whole of his followers
were killed, and Donald of the Hammer escaped, amidst the darkness of
the night, with only a single attendant. From the cause of the flight
the Highlanders gave the name of Gramoch na Geric, of “Grahams
of the hens,” to the Menteith branch ever after (see MENTEITH, Earl
of)
_____
The Grahams
of Leitchtown, Perthshire, descend from the 2d son of 2d earl of
Menteith, through the Grahams of Gartur, being the eldest cadet of
that family, by direct descent.
_____
The Grahams
of Tamrawer, Stirlingshire, are descended fro Graham of Dundaff, the
adjacent barony. Robert Graham, the tenth laird of Tamrawer, an
eminent agriculturist, is mentioned in the Old Statistical Account as
the first person who introduced the culture of potatoes in the open
fields of Scotland to any extent. In Stirlingshire also are the
Grahams of Airth castle, the first of whom was James Graham, dean of
the faculty of Advocates and judge of the high court of Admiralty in
Scotland, who died in 1746; and the Grahams of Meiklewood.
_____
The Grahams
of Monkhouse, in Dumfries-shire, have held that estate in direct
descent for more than two centuries. The Grahams of Duchray in
Perthshire were once of some note.
_____
The Grahams
of Morphie, Kincardineshire, were an offset from the noble house of
Montrose. They are mentioned as an ancient branch of the house of
Graham in the reign of Robert the Bruce, and they got the lands of
Morphie confirmed to them by the charters of David I. In the reign of
James VI., Sir Robert Graham of Morphie was knighted by his chief,
John, earl of Montrose, chancellor and viceroy of Scotland, his arms
being sable a chevron argent, between three escalops or. (Nisbet’s
Heraldry.). Sir Robert’s daughter, Giles, married Sir William
Douglas of Glenbervie, 9th earl of Angus, and was the
mother of the 10th earl.
Sir Robert
Graham of Morphie, his son, was one of the tutors of his kinsman the
great marquis of Montrose, and in 1638 he accompanied him on his first
visit to Aberdeen at the head of the army of the Covenant. He
continued to adhere to him during the whole of the wars in which he
was engaged in Scotland, previous to his departure for the Continent
in 1646, nearly to the ruin of his estate. In 1661, when Montrose’s
head was taken down from the pinnacle of the Tolbooth of Edinburgh,
Graham of Morphie was one of the five personal friends of the great
marquis present to receive it.
Margaret
Graham, the mother of the last Graham of Morphie, was a sister of the
celebrated Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, having married Sir
Robert Graham of Morphie. That gentleman entailed what remained of the
Morphie estate on his kinsman, Barclay of Balmakewan, descended,
through the 2d son of David Barclay of Johnston, from the Barclays of
Mathers, or Madders, afterwards of Urie, on condition of his taking
the name and carrying the arms of Graham of Morphie.
This Barclay
of Balmakewan was grandfather of the present proprietor, Barron
Graham, Esq. of Morphie, who succeeded his uncle, Francis, in that
estate.
_____
The Clan
Graham were principally confined to Menteith and Strathern, Their
badge was the laurel spurge, laureola.
GRAEME, JAMES,
an ingenious poet, the youngest son of a poor farmer, was born at
Carnwath, Lanarkshire, in December 1749. At the age of 14 he was sent
to the grammar school of Lanark, then taught by Mr. Robert Thomson,
brother-in-law of the author of ‘The Seasons.’ In 1766, he was removed
to the university of Edinburgh, and at the close of his first session
at college, he became tutor to the sons of Lawrence Brown, Esq. of
Edmonston.
In 1770 he
resumed his studies at Edinburgh and entered himself in the
theological class. In the summer of 1771 he was employed as tutor in
the family of Mr. White of Miton, near Lanark; but symptoms of
consumption having appeared, he was obliged, on the approach of
winter, to return home to his parents. He died July 26, 1772, before
he was 23 years of age. His Poems, consisting of elegies and
miscellaneous pieces, were collected by his friend Dr. Anderson, and
published at Edinburgh in 1773, with a prefatory account of his life
and character. His works have also obtained a place in Dr. Anderson’s
Collection of British Poets, where his merits as a poet are, however,
much overrated.
GRAHAM, SIR JOHN,
THE,
the faithful companion of Sir William Wallace, was the second son of
the knight of Dundaff, in Stirlingshire, by some called Sir John, by
others Sir David, Graham, by Annabella, his wife, daughter of Robert
earl of Strathern. He joined the patriot Wallace in his heroic attempt
to achieve the independence of his native country; and was slain,
gallantly fighting, at the battle of Falkirk, July 22, 1298. He was
buried in the churchyard of Falkirk, and his monument there, which has
been several times renewed, bears in the centre the arms of the
ancient family of Graham; at the upper part, round an architectural
device, is the legend “Vivit post funera virtus,” and at the lower
part this inscription:
Mente manuque potens, et Vallae fidus Achates,
Donditus hic Gramus, bello interfectus ab
Anglis.
22d July, 1298
The
following English translation proceeds lengthwise, two lines being
along each of the side margins:
Here lys
Sir John the Graeme, baith wight and wise,
Ane one the chiefs reskewit Scotland thrise;
Ane better knight not to the world was lent,
Nor was gvde Gramie of trvth and hardiment.
Wallace’s
lamentation over his dead body in the Metrical Chronicle of Henry the
Minstrel, is one of the most elegant passages in that romantic and
popular, though not over-trusty, narrative of the Scottish hero’s
exploits. Blind Harry represents him saying,
“My dearest brother that I ever had;
My only friend when I was hard bestead;
My hope, my health! O man of honour great,
My faithful aid, and strength in every strait;
Thy matchless wisdom cannot here be told,
Thy noble manhood, truth, and courage bold!
Wisely thou knew to rule and to govern,
Yea, virtue was thy chief and great concern;
A bounteous hand, a heart as true as steel,
A steady mind, most courteous and genteel.”
The sword of Sir
John the Graham is in the possession of the duke of Montrose. It bears
the following inscription, the first couplet of which is borrowed from
the English translation of his epitaph:
“Sir John ye Grame verry vicht and wyse,
One of ye chiefes relievit Scotland thryse,
Fought vith ys svord, and ner thout schame,
Commandit nane to beir it bot his name.”
GRAHAM, JAMES,
first marquis of Montrose, a distinguished military commander,
celebrated by one party as comparable to the greatest heroes of
antiquity, and branded by another as a renegade and traitor, was the
eldest son of John, fourth earl of Montrose, by his countess, Lady
Margaret Ruthven, eldest daughter of the first earl of Gowrie, and was
born in 1612. He succeeded his father in 1626, and being the only son
of his family, was soon after prevailed on by his friends to marry
Lady Magdalen Carnegie, sixth daughter of the first earl of Southesk.
His education having been interrupted by his nuptials, he engaged
preceptors to come into his house, and soon made great progress in
Greek and Latin, and other branches of study. After which he spend
some years on the continent, and having acquired all the
accomplishments of a gentleman, returned to Scotland about 1634. Not
meeting with such an encouraging reception at court as he expected, he
eagerly joined the Presbyterian party, became a lord of the Tables,
November 15, 1637, and was one of the most active and zealous
supporters of the National Covenant on its renewal in 1638. In the
following year he had the command of the forces sent to the north
against the town of Aberdeen, the inhabitants of which city, then
principally Episcopalians, he compelled to take the Covenant. On his
approach, the marquis of Huntly, who had collected a force for the
purpose of preventing a meeting of the Covenanters at Turriff,
disbanded his followers, and was sent by Montrose prisoner to
Edinburgh; but his second son, the earl of Aboyne, having appeared in
arms the same year, Montrose marched against him, and totally routed
his forces at the Bridge of Dee on the 18th of June; on
which occasion the Covenanters again took possession of Aberdeen.
On the
pacification of Berwick being concluded, Montrose, with the earls of
Loudon and Lothian, paid their respects to Charles the First at that
place, in July 1639, being sent for to consult with his majesty as to
the measures necessary to be adopted for restoring peace and
prosperity to the country. In 1640, the king, having raised another
army against the Scots, the latter, assembling their forces, advanced
into England. On this occasion, Montrose, who had the command of two
regiments, one of horse and another of infantry, led the van of the
Scots army across the Tweed, wading through the river on foot, and he
contributed greatly to the victory obtained over the royalists at
Newburn, August 18, 1640.
Filled with
resentment against the Covenanters for preferring to himself the earl
of Argyle and the marquis of Hamilton, Montrose was easily gained over
by the king; when, deserting the cause he had hitherto so zealously
supported, he entered into a secret correspondence with his majesty,
and at a meeting at Cumbernauld in Lanarkshire, prevailed on nineteen
peers to subscribe a bond to aid in restoring Charles to the unlimited
exercise of all his prerogatives. To destroy the superior influence of
the earl of Argyle, Montrose accused him of having asserted that the
estates of parliament intended to depose the king; and brought forward
as his informer one John Stuart, commissary of Dunkeld, who declared
that he heard Argyle make the statement. Stuart, however, confessed
that he had himself forged the speech attributed to Argyle, and by the
advice of Montrose and others had transmitted it to the king. He was
in consequence tried before the high court of justiciary for his share
in this transaction, and being found guilty was executed. Montrose and
three others were committed prisoners to the castle of Edinburgh,
where they remained from June 1641 to January 1642, when they were set
at liberty. Retiring to his own house in the country, he lived
privately till March 1643, when he went to Burlington to meet the
queen on her return from Holland, and accompanied her majesty to York.
He availed himself of this opportunity to solicit a commission to
raise an army for the king, as it was the intention of the Scots to
give their assistance to the English parliament; but being thwarted in
his views by the marquis of Hamilton, he again returned home. Soon
after he repaired to the court at Oxford, when he received a
commission as lieutenant-general for the king in Scotland, and
collecting some troops in Westmoreland, he crossed the border, and, on
April 13, 1644, erected the royal standard at Dumfries. He was
obliged, however, within two days, to make a precipitate retreat into
England. On the 26th of that month he was excommunicated by
the General Assembly; and on the 6th of May was by the king
raised to the rank of marquis. Anxious to show his zeal for the royal
cause, Montrose attacked and dispersed the parliamentary garrison at
Morpeth, and succeeded in throwing provisions into Newcastle; but the
defeat of Prince Rupert at Marston Moor, in the subsequent July,
compelled him, though he himself was not present in the action, to
retire into the Highlands. In the disguise of a groom, under the
assumed name of Anderson, with only sir William Rollock and colonel
Sibbald as his companions, he reached Strathern, where he was informed
of the arrival of a body of Irish sent by the marquis of Antrim, who,
after ravaging the northern extremity of Argyleshire, had landed in
Skye, and traversed the extensive range of Lochaber and Badenoch. In
August, Montrose, in the dress of a simple Highlander, put himself at
the head of these auxiliaries in Blair of Athol, and being joined by
the Athole Highlanders, and others of the clans, soon found himself in
command of about three thousand men. With these tumultuary bands he
rushed forth like a torrent from the mountains, and when he was
thought by all to be utterly unable to bring a single follower into
the field, commenced with them a career of victory which is almost
without a parallel in history.
On the 1st
of September he attacked an army of the Covenanters, amounting to
upwards of six thousand, foot and horse, drawn up at Tippermuir, near
Perth, and without the loss of a man on his side, totally routed them,
when their artillery and baggage fell into his hands. The town of
Perth immediately surrendered to him, but on the approach of the
marquis of Argyle with a strong body of troops, he deemed it advisable
to proceed northward. Twelve days after the action at Tippermuir, he
defeated another army of Covenanters under Lord Lewis Gordon, a son of
the marquis of Huntly, at the bridge of Dee, after which he took
possession of the town of Aberdeen, which for four days was given up
to the pillage of his savage soldiery.
The marquis
of Argyle having been sent against him with a superior force,
Montrose, on his approach, retreated northward, and was pursued into
Badenoch, where his army dispersed, and he himself escaped among the
mountains Soon after he appeared in Athol, and subsequently in Angus,
at the head of some disorderly troops hastily collected; but being
pursued by Argyle, by a sudden march he repassed the Grampians, and
returned to Aberdeenshire, with the expectation of receiving the
support of the Gordons. At Fyvie he was nearly surprised by Argyle,
October 27, 1644, but maintained his situation against the repeated
attacks of a superior army, till the darkness of night enabled him to
retire again into the wilds of Badenoch. Being joined by some of the
clans, he now marched into Argyleshire, and laid waste the estates of
his rival Argyle, who, collecting all the force he could command, went
in pursuit of him. Montrose, however, did not wait to be attacked, but
surprised the army of Argyle at Inverlochy on February 2, 1645, and
totally defeated them, no less than 1,500 Campbells being killed,
while his own loss did not exceed three or four men in all. He next
traversed Morayland, burning and ravaging the country as he went
along; and having been joined by the Gordons and Grants, he proceeded
to the Bog of Gight, where he lost his eldest son, the earl of
Kincardine, a youth of sixteen years of age, who, dying here, was
buried in Bellie church. After plundering Cullen, Banff, Turriff,
Stonehaven, and other towns, he marched to the southward, and, on
April 4, too by storm the town of Dundee, from which he was almost
immediately driven by the arrival of Generals Baillie and Hurry with a
superior force. To intercept his return to the north, these generals
divided their forces, but by a rapid and masterly movement he passed
between their divisions, and once more regained the mountains, where,
having recruited his forces, by one of those hurried marches for which
he was remarkable, he suddenly appeared in Inverness-shire, and, on
May 4, 1645, defeated General Hurry at Auldearn, near the town of
Nairn, and, with the loss of 2,000 men, obliged him to retreat to
Inverness. On July 2 he encountered and defeated Baillie at the
village of Alford, but the victory was embittered by the loss of Lord
Gordon, who fell in the action. With a body of about 6,000 men he now
descended into the heart of Scotland, and fought a decisive battle at
Kilsyth, August 15, when Baillie was again defeated with the loss of
about 5,000 men.
This victory
opened to him the whole of Scotland; and, finding no longer any force
opposed to him in that kingdom, he marched forward to the borders,
with the intention of pouring his victorious army into England, and
encamped at Philiphaugh, near Selkirk. Recalled by the danger into
which the cause of the covenant had been thrown by the successes of
Montrose, General David Leslie hastened from England at the head of
those iron squadrons whose bravery had been proved in the battle of
Long Marston Moor, so fatal to the royalists. His army consisted of
from 5,000 to 6,000 men, chiefly cavalry. With the view of forcing
Montrose to battle, and at the same time cutting off his retreat to
the Highlands, Leslie marched along the eastern coast from Berwick to
Tranent; but learning that the enemy was lying secure in Ettrick
Forest, he suddenly altered his direction, and crossing through
Mid-Lothian, turned again to the southward, and, following the course
of the Gala Water, arrived at Melrose before Montrose had any
intimation of his approach. On September 13, 1645, Leslie unexpectedly
attacked the royalist army posted at Philiphaugh, and gained a
complete victory before Montrose had time even to form a line of
battle. Throwing himself upon a horse the instant he heard the firing,
and followed by such of his disordered cavalry as had gathered upon
the alarm, Montrose galloped from Selkirk across the Ettrick, and made
a bold and desperate attempt to rally his flying troops, and retrieve
the fortune of the day. Finding, however, that all his efforts were in
vain, he cut his way almost singly through a body of Leslie’s
troopers, and, like his scattered followers, hurried precipitately
from the field. He continued his retreat up Yarrow and over Minchmoor,
nor did he once draw bridle till he arrived at Traquair, 16 miles from
the field of battle. At Philiphaugh he lost in one defeat the fruit of
six splendid victories, nor was he ever again able to make head
against the covenanted cause in Scotland.
Retiring
into Athol, Montrose succeeded in gaining the support of some of the
Highland chieftains, and laid siege to Inverness, from which place he
was compelled by General Middleton to retreat. In the subsequent May
he received orders from the king, who had surrendered to the Scottish
army, to disband his forces and withdraw from the kingdom, when he
capitulated with General Middleton, July 22, 1646, and after arranging
his affairs, on the 3d September of that year he left the harbour of
Montrose in a small boat, disguised as the servant of James Wood, a
clergyman who accompanied him, and the same evening went safely on
board a vessel in the neighbouring harbour of Stonehaven, and setting
sail arrived n a few days at Bergen, in Norway, where he received a
friendly welcome from Thomas Gray, a Scotsman, the governor of the
castle of Bergen. He afterwards proceeded to Paris, where he resided
for some time. In May 1648 he went to Germany, and offered his
services to the emperor, by whom he was raised to the rank of
mareschal. He was at Brussels when he heard of the execution f the
king, on which he wrote the following stanza:
“Great, good, and just! Could I but rate
My griefs to thy too rigid fate,
I’d weep the world to such a strain,
As it would deluge once again:
But since thy loud-tongued blood demands
supplies,
More from Briareus’ hands than Argus’ eyes,
I’ll sing thy obsequies with trumpet sounds,
And write thy epitaph with blood and wounds.”
He
subsequently repaired to the Hague, having been sent for by Charles
the Second, who granted him a commission to attempt the recovery of
Scotland, and invested him with the order of the Garter. With arms
supplied by the queen of Sweden, and money from the king of Denmark,
Montrose embarked at Hamburgh with 600 Germans, and landed in Orkney
in March 1650. His small army having been reinforced by the addition
of about 800 islanders, he crossed over into the mainland, but as he
traversed the wilds of Caithness and Sutherland, he was joined by very
few of the royalist party. Advancing into Ross-shire, he was surprised
at Invercharron, and totally defeated by Colonel Strachan on April 27,
1650. After a fruitless resistance, he fled from the field of battle
upon a horse lent him by the young and generous Viscount Frendraught,
his own having been killed, but, being pursued, he quitted his horse,
threw away his cloak, his ribbon, and his star, and exchanged clothes
with a countryman whom he met in his way. He took refuge in the
grounds of M’Leod of Assynt, by whom he was delivered into the hands
of General Leslie, and, in the same mean habit in which he was taken,
sent prisoner to Edinburgh. He was received by the magistrates of that
city at the Watergate, bottom of the Canongate, May 18, placed on an
elevated seat on a cart, to which he was pinioned with cords, and in
slow procession, in presence of thousands of spectators, was, by the
public executioner, conducted bareheaded to the common gaol. Having
been forfeited by parliament in 1644, sentence of death was now,
without the previous formality of a trial, pronounced against him,
and, on May 21, 1650, he was hanged on a gibbet thirty feet high, with
the history of his exploits appended to his neck. His body was
afterwards quartered, and his limbs affixed to the gates of the
principal towns in Scotland. He bore his fate with a fortitude and
magnanimity that excited the admiration even of his enemies, attesting
with his latest breath his attachment to the royal cause. With the
most impetuous and chivalric daring, Montrose possessed a mind of
unusual refinement for that stormy age, and was accustomed to occupy
his few intervals of leisure with the elegant pursuits of literature.
The night before his execution he wrote the following lies upon the
window of the chamber in which he was confined:
“Let them bestow me every airt a limb,
Then open all my veins, that I may swim
To thee, my Maker, in that crimson lake,
Then place my parboiled head upon a stake;
Scatter my ashes, strow them in the air.
Lord, since thou knowest where all these atoms
are,
I’m hopeful thou’lt recover once my dust,
And confident thou’lt raise me with the just.”
Some other
poems of his have been preserved; and a work written by him in Latin,
entitled ‘De Rebus Auspiciis Serenissimi et Potentissimi Caroli, Dei
Gratia Magnae Britanniae Regis,’ &c., was published at Paris in 1648.
After the
Restoration, his remains received a state funeral. On the 7th
January, 1661, the marquis’ son, the then marquis of Montrose, with
his friends of the name of Graham, the whole Scots nobility and
gentry, with the Lord Provost, Magistrates, and Town Council of
Edinburgh, and four companies of the Trained Bands of the city, went
to the Burgh Muir, where his body had been buried, and having taken it
up, conveyed it, with the honour befitting the occasion, to the Abbey
church of Holyrood house, The other remains were collected from the
various quarters to which they had been dispersed, excepting one hand
which was never found, and after having lain in state for a long time
in Holyrood, were borne to the church of St. Giles, with a splendour
surpassing that of any funeral of the time in Scotland, and there, we
are told, “they still repose in the grave of his grandfather, Earl
John, immediately to the eastward of the Regent Moray’s vault, in the
southern transept of St. Giles, which for generations afterwards was
known as the Montrose Aisle.”
GRAHAM, JOHN,
Viscount Dundee,
a royalist officer, celebrated for his hostility to the Covenant and
fidelity to James VII., was the eldest son of Sir William Graham of
Claverhouse near Dundee, descended from the noble family of Montrose,
and Lady Jean Carnegie, fourth daughter of John first earl of Northesk.
He was educated at the university of St. Andrews, where, as would
appear from his letters, he seems to have made no great proficiency in
scholarship of any kind, being chiefly remarkable in his youth for his
enthusiastic predilection for Highland poetry, and for his headlong
zeal in behalf of episcopacy and the established order of things. He
commenced his military career as a volunteer in the French service,
but in 1672, in the war against France, he became a cornet in the
guards of the prince of Orange, whose life he saved at the sanguinary
battle of Seneff, in August 1674, of which occasion he was rewarded
with a captain’s commission. A vacancy taking place soon after in one
of the Scottish regiments in Holland, he applied for the command of
it; but the prince, having pre-engaged it to another, refused his
request, on which he quitted the Dutch service, saying, “The soldier
who has not gratitude cannot be brave.” He returned to Scotland in
1677, when he was nominated by Charles the second commander of one of
the independent regiments of horse raised against the Covenanters. On
May 29, 1679, a meeting of the persecuted presbyterians took place on
Loudonhill in Ayrshire, for the celebration of the sacrament of the
Lord’s Supper. To disperse them, Claverhouse, at the head of his own
dragoons, instantly marched from Glasgow, and arrived at Hamilton 31st
May, so unexpectedly, as to make prisoner Mr. John King, a famous
field preacher, and seventeen others, on their way to Loudonhill; he
then rapidly continued his march, carrying his captives along with
him, till he reached the village of Drumclog, about a mile east from
Loudonhill. Here those of the congregation who were armed, having
skilfully posted themselves in a place which was almost inaccessible
to cavalry, with a broad ditch in their front, calmly waited for the
assault of the king’s troops, which took place on the 1st
of June. The dragoons, after discharging their carabines, made an
attempt to charge, but the nature of the ground threw them into
confusion, and after a short but furious engagement, they were
compelled to give way, and the Covenanters gained a complete victory.
Claverhouse himself was forced to fly; and his horse’s belly being cut
open by the stroke of a scythe, he escaped with difficulty. In his
flight he passed King, the minister, lately his prisoner, but now
deserted by his guard, and the latter tauntingly cried out to him to
“stay and take the afternoon’s preaching!” The insurgents, as they
were styled, were repulsed the next day in an attack upon the town of
Glasgow, which, however, Claverhouse deemed it expedient to evacuate.
When the
victory at Drumclog became known, a number of preachers, gentlemen,
and common people of the west, joined the Covenanters, who had pitched
their camp in the neighbourhood of Hamilton. Their numbers and zeal
excited great alarm at Edinburgh, and the foot militia was instantly
called out, and two additional regiments of dragoons were ordered from
England to join the royal army, which, under the command of the duke
of Monmouth, reached Bothwell Muir on Sunday June 22, 1679. The
Covenanters, unfortunately, were divided amongst themselves; they were
likewise deficient in subordination and discipline, and, in addition,
were but ill provided with arms and ammunition, and especially with
artillery. They were encamped chiefly in the park of the duke of
Hamilton, along the river Clyde, which separated the two armies.
Bothwell bridge, which at that period was long and narrow, had then a
portal in the middle with gates, which the Covenanters shut, and
barricaded with stones and timber. This important post was bravely
defended by 300 of their best men, under Hackston of Rathillet; but
their ammunition being soon expended, they were compelled reluctantly
to abandon it; on which the king’s troops, with their cannon in front,
defiled along the bridge, and formed in line of battle. The duke
commanded the foot, and Claverhouse the cavalry. At the first
discharge of their guns, the Covenanters were driven from the field
with great and indiscriminate slaughter, and Monmouth in vain
attempted to restrain the fury of his troops. Disregarding the orders
of the duke, Claverhouse mercilessly pursued the fugitives, and by his
relentless proceedings acquired for himself the unenviable appellation
of “The Bloody Claver’se.”
In 1682 he
was appointed sheriff of Wigton, in which office his brother David was
joined with him the following year. Both brothers, but particularly
Claverhouse, rendered themselves odious from the extreme cruelty of
their measures. Claverhouse himself has been accused of as
cold-blooded and atrocious a murder as was ever committed, that of
John Brown, the Christian carrier, in 1685, with the details of which
every reader of the history of the cruel persecutions of that period
must be familiar. Claverhouse’s own account of it is contained in a
letter from him to the duke of Queensberry, discovered among the
collections of the duke of Buccleuch, and it clearly refutes the
story, current in all our histories, that Brown was shot by
Claverhouse with his own hand, and proves that Brown might have saved
his life on the same conditions which were accepted by his nephew, who
was captured along with him. Accused of cruelty in his proceedings
against the Covenanters, Claverhouse answered, that “terror was true
mercy, if it put an end to or prevented war.” For his services he was,
in 1684, constituted captain of the royal regiment of horse, sworn a
privy councillor, and had a gift from the king of the castle of
Dudhope, and the constabulary of Dundee, then n the hands of the earl
of Lauderdale, by paying a sum of money to the chancellor.
On the
accession of James VII. He was left out of the commission of privy
council, on pretence, that having married into the earl of Dundonald’s
family, it was not safe to intrust him with the king’s secrets, but
was soon restored. He had the rank of brigadier-general in 1686, and
of major general in 1688, and was created viscount of Dundee, and Lord
Graham of Claverhouse, by patent, November 12, 1688. At this time he
was in London with the king, whose affairs were now becoming
desperate. When his majesty, on the approach of the prince of Orange,
withdrew to Rochester, Claverhouse strongly opposed his departure, and
undertook to collect 10,000 of his disbanded soldiers, and to march
through England at their head, driving the Dutch forces before him.
His offer was not accepted; and Dundee returned to Scotland with a
troop of sixty horse, which had deserted from his regiment in England.
He was present at the convention of Estates in January 1689; but not
finding himself safe in Edinburgh, he retired with his troopers from
the capital; and in the beginning of May appeared in the Highlands in
arms in favour of the expatriated king. General Mackay was sent, at
the head of a considerable force, to oppose him, and two months were
passed in great impatience by Dundee, in consequence of orders he had
received from King James not to risk a battle until the arrival of
some assistance from Ireland. He was accustomed, we are told, to march
on foot with the soldiers, at one time by the side of one clan, and
anon by that of another, flattering them with his knowledge of their
genealogies, and animating them by the recital of the deeds of their
ancestors, and of the verses of their bards. It was one of his maxims,
that no general should fight with an irregular army, unless he was
acquainted with every man he commanded. Yet, with these habits of
familiarity, his discipline was dreadfully severe; the only punishment
he inflicted was death. “All other punishments,” he said, “disgraced a
gentleman, and all who were with him were of that rank; but death was
a relief from the consciousness of crime.” It is related of him, that
having seen a young officer under him fly in his first action, he
pretended he had sent him to the rear on a message. The youth fled a
second time; when he brought him to the front of the army, and, saying
“That a gentleman’s son ought not to fall by the hands of a common
executioner,” shot him dead with his own pistol in presence of his
troops. His followers chiefly consisted of Highlanders from the
interior of the Highlands, with whom, as being of the blood of the
marquis of Montrose, he was the object of peculiar attachment. On
hearing that Mackay, with 3,000 foot and two troops of horse, was
advancing through Athol, Dundee marched to meet him, with about 2,500
men; and, at the pass of Killiecrankie, on June 17, 1689, an
engagement took place, which ended in the defeat of the former, with
the loss of 2,500 men. But the victory proved fatal to Dundee, who, at
the moment he was pointing to the retreating enemy, with his arm
extended to hs trops, received a shot in his side, through an opening
in his armour, and dropped from horseback as he rode off the field.
The statement that he survived to write an account of his victory to
King James is not true, and the letter usually given as his, is a
forgery. His remains were interred in the church of Blairin-Athol, and
with him was buried the cause of King James in Scotland.
GRAHAM, DOUGAL,
a rhymster of Glasgow, author fo a metrical history of the rebellion
of 1745, and of various “chap books,” at one time very popular among
the peasantry of Scotland, was born near Raploch in Stirlingshire in
1724, and was at first a servant near Campsie, Stirlingshire, He then
became a sort of packman, or travelling dealer in small wares, in
which capacity he followed both the rebel and the royal armies in
1745. According to his own statement he had been “an eye-witness to
most of the movements of the armies from the rebels’ first crossing
the ford of Frew to their final defeat at Culloden.” He afterwards
became a printer in Glasgow, and ultimately was appointed bellman of
that city, a situation of considerable usefulness, if not of some
profit, in those days when there was scarcely any other method of
advertising practised. His history of the rebellion, in doggerel
rhyme, is said to have been a favourite with Sir Walter Scott. It was
first printed under the followint title: ‘A full, particular and true
account of the Rebellion in the years 1745-6,
Composed by the poet D. Graham,
In Stirlingshire he lives at hame,
To the tune of the
Gallant Grahams. To which is added several other poems by the same
author.’ Glasgow, 1746, 12mo. The second edition, 1752, bears “printed
for and sold by Dougal Graham, merchant in Glasgow.” The third
edition, published in 1774, was entirely re-written, without,k says
his biographer, being improved. The work ran through several
subsequent editions. He was also the author of the humorous songs of
‘The Turnimspike,’ and ‘John Hielandman’s remarks on Glasgow,’ and of
the facetious penny histories of ‘Lothian Tam,’ ‘Leper the Tailor,’
‘Simple John and his Twelve Misfortunes,’ ‘Jocky and Meggy’s
Courtship,’ ‘John Cheap the Chapman,’ ‘The Comical Sayings of Paddy
from Cork, with his coat buttoned behind,’ ‘Jhn Falkirk’s Carritches,’
‘Janet Clinker’s Orations in the Society of Clashing Wives,’ &c.,
which contain a great deal of coarse and low humour, and long formed
staple articles with the “flying stationer” and on the old bookstalls,
but since the introduction of a higher and better kind of cheap
literature, have become almost unknown. Dougal Graham died July 20,
1779. An account of him was given by William Motherwell, the poet, in
the Paisley Magazine for 1828.
GRAHAM, THOMAS,
Lord Lynedoch,
a distinguished general, of the family of Balgowan in Perthshire, was
born at the family mansion there in 1750. The progenitor of the family
was William, third son of William Graham of Kincardine, of the house
of Montrose, by his 2d wife, the princess Mary, 2d daughter of Robert
III.; and the Balgowan Grahams were in use to carry for arms, Or, on a
chief idented, sable, three escallops of the first, and in the centre
a martlet of the second, within the double tressure of Scotland, as a
badge of their descent from royal blood. John Graham, second son of
John Graham of Garvock, purchased the estate of Balgowan from James
Lord Innermeath, in 1584, and on account of his loyalty and the
assistance given to James the Sixth against the earl of Gowrie, he
received from that monarch several of the forfeited lands on the
Gowrie estate, namely, Nether Pitcairns, Craigengall, Half lands of
Monedie, Half lands of Legulurie, and half of Codrachie-mill, with the
patronage of the church of Monedie. The subject of this memoir was the
third son, and only surviving child of Thomas Graham, Esq. of Balgowan,
by his wife, Lady Christian Hope, sixth daughter of Charles first earl
of Hopetoun, He did not enter the army until he was forty-three years
of age, and then under circumstances of a somewhat romantic nature.
His father had died on 6th December 1766, and on the 26th
December 1774 he married the Hon. Mary Cathcart, second daughter of
Charles ninth Lord Cathcart, her elder sister, Jane, being married the
same day to the fourth duke of Athol. From this period till 1792 he
remained a private country gentleman, cultivating his estates, and
indulging in classical studies, and the enjoyment of elegant leisure.
On 26th June of the latter year, his wife, to whom he was
most tenderly attached, died without having had any children. His
grief for her loss was so overwhelming as greatly to injure his
health, and with the view of obtaining relief from change of scene and
variety of objects, he was recommended to travel. After visiting
France, he went to Gibraltar, and during his sojourn there, he fell
into the society of the garrison, and thenceforth determined on
devoting himself to the profession of arms. Lord Hood was then about
to sail for the south of France, and Mr. Graham accompanied him as a
volunteer. In 1793 he landed with the British troops at Toulon, and
served as extra aide-de-camp to Lord Mulgrave, the general commanding
in chief, who acknowledged by his particular thanks his gallant and
able services. He was always foremost in the attack, and on one
occasion, at the head of a column, when a private soldier fell, Mr.
Graham took up his musket, and supplied his place in the front rank.
On returning to Scotland he raised from among his countrymen the first
battalion of the 90th regiment, of which he was appointed
colonel commandant, 10th February, 1794. Shortly after, he
was elected the representative in parliament of the county of Perth.
In Politics he was a whig, and after continuing M.P. for Perthshire
till 1807, he was defeated in two contested elections in 1811 and 1812
by James Drummond, Esq.
His
regiment, which formed part of the army under the command of Lord
Moira, afterwards marquis of Hastings, passed the summer of 1795, at
Isle Dieu, whence it was ordered to Gibraltar, and on 22d July of that
year he was promoted to the rank of colonel in the army. He soon grew
tired of the idleness inseparable from garrison duty, and obtained
permission to join the Austrian army. He continued in that service
during the summer of 1796, and in it found ample opportunities not
only of perfecting himself in the art of war, but of sending to the
British government intelligence of the military operations and
diplomatic measures adopted by the commanders and sovereigns of the
continent. His despatches, at this period, evinced, in a remarkable
degree, his great talents and characteristic energy. Attached to the
Austrian army of Italy, he was shut up in Mantua, with General Wurmser,
during its investment; but as the siege of that city continued long,
and the garrison began to suffer severely from want of provisions, it
was determined, at a council of war, that intelligence should be sent
to the Imperialist General, Alvinzi, of their desperate situation.
This perilous mission Colonel Graham volunteered to perform in person.
Disguised as a peasant, on the night of the 29th December,
in the midst of a deep fall of snow, he quitted Mantua, which is
situated on two islands formed by the expansion of the waters of the
Mincio. Owing to the darkness of the night, the boat in which he was
embarked stranded several times before a convenient landing place
could be reached. During the night he travelled on foot, wading
through mire and swamps, and in constant danger of losing his way, or
of being shot by some one of the numerous pickets that were out. At
day-dawn, he concealed himself till night,, when he resumed his
journey. At length, after having eluded the vigilance of the French
patrols, and surmounted numerous hardships and dangers, he arrived at
the head-quarters of General Alvinzi at Bassano, on 4th
January, 1797.
“A short
time after, Colonel Graham returned to England, but in the autumn of
the same year he joined his regiment at Gibraltar. He next proceeded,
with Sir Charles Stuart, to the attack of Minorca, and on the
reduction of that island the warmest eulogium was bestowed by that
commander on the skill and valour displayed by him. Colonel Graham
then repaired to Sicily, where his exertions were so effective, that
he received the repeated acknowledgments, as well as various marks of
gratitude, from the king and queen of Naples. In 1798, with the local
rank of Brigadier, he besieged the important island of Malta, then
held by the French, having under his command the 30th and
89th regiments and some corps embodied under his immediate
direction. Aware of the prodigious strength of the place, he resorted
to a blockade, and after a resistance of two years’ duration, the
garrison were obliged by famine to surrender in September 1800.
On the
surrender of Malta, Colonel Graham returned to England, and being
anxious to rejoin his regiment, the 90th, which had served
with distinction in Egypt (having formed the advanced guard of the
first line on the 21st March, 1801), he said for that
country. Previous to his arrival, however, Egypt had been completely
conquered, and, in company with Mr. Hutchinson, the brother of the
commander-in-chief, Lord Hutchinson, afterwards earl of Donoughmore,
he travelled to Europe, through Turkey, and passed some time at
Constantinople. In 1802, during the short peace of Amiens, he resided
for a time at Paris. From 1803 to 1805, he served with his regiment in
Ireland. In the latter year it was ordered out to the West Indies, and
he remained without active employment till the spring of 1808, when
Sir John Moore being sent, with ten thousand men, to the assistance of
the king of Sweden, Colonel Graham obtained permission to go with him
as aide-de-camp. He availed himself of the opportunity to traverse the
country in all directions. Sir John Moore’s mission having failed, he
was ordered to proceed to Spain, whither Colonel Graham accompanied
him, and served with him during the whole campaign of 1808, and in the
arduous and disastrous retreat to Corunna. On that gallant commander
receiving his death-wound at the battle of Corunna, Colonel Graham was
one of the officers who hastened to his assistance, and among the last
inquiries of the dying general, just previous to his death, was one in
which his name was mentioned, “Are Colonel Graham and all my
aides-de-camp well?”
On the
embarkation of the troops, Colonel Graham accompanied them t England,
He was promoted to the rank of major-general, July 25, 1810, and
appointed to command a division in the expedition to Walcheren. At the
siege of Flushing, he was actively employed, but being attacked by
fever he was obliged to return home. On his recovery, he was sent,
with the rank of lieutenant-general, to take the command of the
British and Portuguese troops in Cadiz, which, at that time, was
blockaded by the French.
On the 21st
February, 1811, an expedition sailed from Cadiz, under the command of
lieutenant-general Graham and the Spanish general, Don Manuel La Pena,
to join the Spanish forces at St. Roche, with the object of making a
combined attack on the rear of the French engaged in the blockade, a
movement which led to the memorable battle of Barossa in the following
March. On the day following, the expedition landed at Algesiras, and
on the 23d marched to Tarifa, without any other road than a mule path,
which was found difficult for the advance of the cavalry, which, with
all the artillery, were sent onwards by sea. The British force
consisted of a brigade of artillery, with ten guns; two battalions of
foot guards; the 28th, 67th, and 87th
regiments; a battalion composed of flank companies, which joined from
Gibraltar; two companies of the 47th regiment, and two of
the 20th Portuguese regiment; with six companies of the
rifle brigade, and one squadron of cavalry. The Spanish army, under
the command of General La Pena, to whom, being senior officer, General
Graham ceded the chief command, consisted of two divisions; in all,
between ten and eleven thousand men. On getting the artillery and
horses on shore, the Anglo-Spanish force proceeded to Veger, where
they remained all day, and after a night march of sixteen hours, they
arrived on the morning of the 5th March on the low ridge of
Barossa, abut four miles to the southward of the mouth of the Santi
Petri river. A well-conducted and successful attack on the rear of the
enemy’s lines near Santi Petri, by the vanguard of the Spanish
division of the combined force, under Brigadier general Ladrizabel,
having opened the communication with the Isla de Leon, General Graham,
whose division had halted on the eastern slope of the Barossa height,
received General La Pena’s directions to move down from the position
of Barossa to that of the Torre de Bermeya, about half-way to the
Santi Petri river, to secure the communication across, a bridge having
been recently erected there. The ground between Barossa and Bermeya is
a rough uneven plain, skirted by a great pine forest. General Graham’s
division accordingly marched abut twelve o’clock through the wood
towards the Bermeya. On the march he received intelligence that the
enemy had appeared in force in the plain and was advancing towards the
heights. As he considered that position the key of that of Santi
Petri, he immediately gave orders for a counter-march, in order to
support the troops left in its defence; but before the British could
get disentangled from the wood, the Spanish force posted on the
heights were seen retiring, while the enemy’s left wing was rapidly
ascending.
The force of
the enemy which had thus seized the heights, after having dislodged
the Spanish troops, amounted to not less than 3,500 men, under General
Rufin. Another body of 4,000 men was drawn up on the left of Rufin to
oppose the approach of the British. The total of the french force
opposed to the latter, and to the latter alone, was thus about 7,500
men, being nearly double the force under General Graham. “A retreat,”
says General Graham in his despatch, “in the face of such an enemy,
already within reach of the easy communication by the sea-beach, must
have involved the whole allied army in all the danger of being
attacked, during the unavoidable confusion of the different corps
arriving on the narrow ridge of Bermeya nearly at the same time.
Trusting to the known heroism of British troops, regardless of the
numbers and position of their enemy, an immediate attack was
determined on. Major Duncan soon opened a powerful battery of ten guns
in the centre. Brigadier-general Dilkes, with the brigade of guards,
Lieutenant-colonel Browne’s (of the 28th) flank battalion,
Lieutenant-colonel Norcott’s two companies of the 2d rifle corps, and
Major Acheson, with a part of the 67th foot, separated from
the regiment in the wood, formed on the right. Colonel Wheatly’s
brigade, with three companies of Coldstream guards under
Lieutenant-colonel Jackson, separated likewise from his battalion in
the wood, and Lieutenant-colonel Barnard’s flank battalion, formed on
the left. As soon as the infantry was thus hastily got together, the
guns advanced to a more favourable position, and kept up a most
destructive fire. The right wing proceeded to the attack of General
Rufin’s division on the hill, while Lieutenant-colonel Barnard’s
battalion and Lieutenant-colonel Busche’s detachment of the 20th
Portuguese, were warmly engaged with the enemy’s tirailleurs on our
left. General Laval’s division, notwithstanding the havoc made by
Major Duncan’s battery, continued to advance in very imposing masses,
opening his fire of musketry, and was only checked by that of the left
wing. The left wing now advanced, firing; a most determined charge, by
the three companies of guards, and the 87th regiment,
supported by all the remainder of the wing, decided the defeat of
General Laval’s division. A reserve formed beyond the narrow valley,
across which the enemy was closely pursued, next shared the same fate,
and was routed by the same means. Meanwhile the right wing was not
less successful. The enemy, confident of success, met General Dilkes
on the ascent of the hill, and the contest was sanguinary, but the
undaunted perseverance of the brigade of guards, of Lieutenant-colonel
Browne’s battalion, and f Lieutenant-colonel Norcott’s and Major
Acheson’s department overcame every obstacle, and General Rufin’s
division was driven from the heights in confusion, leaving two pieces
of cannon.”
The despatch
then proceeds to bear testimony to the gallantry and devotion of every
officer and soldier engaged, specifying as usual those by name who had
more particularly distinguished themselves. In less than an hour and a
half from the commencement of the action, the french were in full
retreat. The retiring divisions met, halted, and seemed inclined to
form; but the British artillery still advancing, quickly dispersed
them. The exhausted state of the troops made pursuit impossible. The
eagle of the 8th Imperial regiment was taken by Sergeant
Masterman of the 87th, who was afterwards rewarded for his
brave achievement by a commission. Generals Rufin and Rosseau,
severely wounded, were among the prisoners, and General Bellegarde, an
aide-de-camp of Marshal Victor, and many other officers, among the
killed. This celebrated victory was gained, in spite of every possible
disadvantage, as to position and locality, on the side of the British.
They had to attack the enemy in their own position, and to fight for
ground which they had lost only by the weakness of the Spanish
general. As has been well remarked, Barossa was to General Graham what
Almarez was to Lord Hill, and Albuera to Lord Beresford – the greatest
event of their lives, and the source of all their distinctions. A vote
of thanks was immediately passed in parliament to Lieutenant-general
Graham, and to the brave force under his command. He was at that time
a member of the House of Commons, and in his place in parliament he
received that distinguished token of a nation’s gratitude. In his
reply, after stating that it would ill become him to disguise his
feelings on the occasion, for he well knew the inestimable value of
such thanks to a soldier, he added, “In have formerly often heard you,
Sir, eloquently and impressively deliver the thanks of the house to
officers present, and never without an anxious wish that In might one
day receive this most enviable mark of my country’s regard. This
honest ambition is now fully gratified, and In am more than ever bound
to try to merit the good opinion of the house.” At the same time he
obtained the Grand Cross of the order of the Bath, which entitled him
to the designation of a knight.
The battle
of Barossa was distinguished as the first fight in which the English
captured a french eagle. Sir Walter Scott pays the following
well-merited tribute to the gallant Graham: –
“Nor be his
praise o’erpast, who strove to hide
Beneath the warrior’s vest affection’s wound;
Whose wish Heaven for his country’s weal denied;
Danger and fate he sought, but glory found.
From clime to clime, where’er war’s trumpets sound,
The wanderer went; yet, Caledonia! Still
Thine was his thought in march and tented ground;
He dreamed, ‘mid Alpine cliffs, of Athole’s hill,
And heard, in Ebro’s roar, his Lynedoch’s lovely rill.
“O! Hero of
a race renown’d of old,
Whose war-cry oft has waked the battle swell,
Since first distinguished n the onset bold,
Wild sounding when the Roman rampart fell!!
By Wallace’ side it rung the Southron’s knell’
Alderne, Kilsyth, and Tiber own’d its fame,
Tummel’s rude pass can of its terrors tell;
But ne’er fro prouder field arose the name,
Than when wild Ronda heard the conquering shout of Graeme.”
Colonel
Napier, n his History of the War in the Peninsula, referring to the
battle of Barossa, says, “All the passages in this extraordinary
battle were so broadly marked, that observations would be useless. The
contemptible feebleness of La Pena furnished a surprising contrast to
the heroic vigour of Graham, whose attack was an inspiration rather
than a resolution, so wise, so sudden was the decision, so swift, so
conclusive was the execution . . . . .Indeed such was La Pena’s
misconduct, that the french, although defeated, gained their main
point; the blockade was renewed, and it is remarkable that during the
action, a French detachment passed near the bridge of Zuazo without
difficulty, and brought back prisoners . . . In Cadiz violent disputes
arose, La Pena, in an address to the Cortes, claimed the victory for
himself. He affirmed that all the previous arrangements were made with
the knowledge and approbation of the English general, and the latter’s
retreat into the Isla he indicated as the real cause of failure. Lascy
and General Cruz-Murgeon also published inaccurate accounts of the
action, and even had deceptive plans engraved to uphold their
statements. Graham, stung by these unworthy proceedings, exposed the
conduct of La Pena in a letter to the British envoy; and when Lascy
let fall some expressions personally offensive, he enforced an apology
with his sword; but having thus shown himself superior to his
opponents at all points, the gallant old man soon afterwards
relinquished his command to General Cooke, and joined Lord
Wellington’s army.” Of that army he succeeded Sir Brent Spencer as
second in command, and in January 1812, the immediate direction of the
siege of Ciudad Rodrigo was intrusted to him. Subsequently, he was
left in charge of Badajoz, but in consequence of a complaint in his
eyes, occasioned by the use of a prospect glass under an almost
vertical sun, he was obliged to revisit England for a short time.
Early in 1813, however, he again repaired to the Peninsula, and on the
21st June of that year, he commanded the left wing of the
British army at the battle of Vittoria. He was directed to turn the
right of the French, and to intercept their retreat by the road to
Bayonne, and while the right and centre of the British army were
driving the enemy back upon Vittoria, the left, under Sir Thomas
Graham, having made a wide circuit, was moving upon that city by the
high road leading to it from Bilboa. A part of his troops turned the
enemy’s right, and gained some strong heights covering the village of
Gammara Mayor, which command the bridge over the Zadorra at that
place. This village was carried by storm at the point of the bayonet,
under a heavy fire from the artillery and musketry of the French, who
suffered severely, and lost three pieces of cannon. The possession of
this and of another village cut off the enemy’s retreat by the high
road to Bayonne. They still, however, had, on the heights on the left
of the Zadorra, two divisions of infantry in reserve, and it was
impossible for Sir Thomas Graham to cross by the bridges, until the
troops from the centre and right had driven the enemy from Vittoria.
This was effected abut six o’clock in the evening, and then passing
the river, he took possession of the road to Bayonne, and forced the
French to retreat by that leading to Pampeluna. The whole of the army
now joined in the pursuit.
Mr. Abbot,
then speaker of the House of Commons, and afterwards Lord Colchester,
in alluding to General Graham’s career at this period, stated that his
was “a name never to be mentioned in our military annals without the
strongest expression of respect and admiration;” and the Right Hon.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, speaking of the various excellent
qualities, personal and professional, which adorned his character,
said: “Never was there seated a loftier spirit in a braver heart.”
Referring to his services in the retreat of the British army to
Corunna, he continued: “In the hour of peril Graham was their best
adviser; in the hour of disaster Graham was their surest consolation.”
A song composed on the battle of Vittoria, by Mr. W. Glen, and at the
time very popular, thus commences:
“Sing a’ ye
bards wi’ loud acclaim,
High glory gie to gallant Graham:
Heap laurels on our Marshal’s fame,
Wha conquer’d at Vittoria.”
He was
subsequently despatched by Wellington to invest San Sebastian,
twenty-two miles southwest of Bayonne. That town was then defended by
Emmanual Rey, and General Graham besieged and bombarded it from the
beginning of July (1813). On the 24th of that month he
attempted to carry it by storm, but was repulsed with the loss of
2,000 men, and on the 27th, he was compelled to raise the
siege. It was renewed, however, after the defeat of Soult at the foot
of the Pyrenees, on the 28th and 29th, and in
repeated assaults the British suffered severely. On the 31st
August Sir Thomas Graham became master of the most important works, at
a loss of 3,000 men, and on the 9th September the citadel
surrendered. At the passage of the Bidassoa river, which separates
France and Spain, Sir Thomas Graham had the command of the left wing
of the British army, and on the 7th of October, after an
obstinate resistance from the enemy, he succeeded in establishing our
victorious troops on the territory of France. Soon after, in
consequence of ill-health, he resigned his command to
Lieutenant-general Sir John Hope, and returned to England. In 1814, he
was appointed commander of the forces in Holland, with the local rank
of general. He defeated the French at Merxem; but failed in the
assault on Bergen op Zoom. On the 3d May of the same year, he again
received the thanks of parliament, and was created a peer of the
United Kingdom, by the title of Lord Lynedoch of Balgowan in the
county of Perth, but nobly refused a grant of £2,000 per annum, to
himself and his heirs, which was intended to accompany his elevation
to the peerage. In 1821 he was raised to the full rank of general. In
1826 he was nominated colonel of the 14th foot, and in 1834
was removed to the colonelcy of the royals. In 1829, he was appointed
governor of Dumbarton castle, a post rather honorary than lucrative,
its salary being only £170 per annum. Besides his other honours, he
was a knight Grand Cross of the order of St. Michael and St. George,
of the Tower and Sword in Portugal, and of the Spanish order of St.
Ferdinand.
In his
latter years, Lord Lynedoch passed much of his time upon the
Continent, chiefly in Italy, the climate of which country was greatly
more congenial to his health than that of either Scotland or England,
In 1842, however, when Queen Victoria visited Scotland for the first
time, so anxious was he to manifest his sense of loyalty and his
personal attachment to his sovereign, that, though then in his 92d
year, he came from Switzerland, for the express purpose of paying his
duty to her majesty in the metropolis of his native land. This
distinguished officer and most excellent man died at his house in
London, 18th December 1843, at the advanced age of 93. As
he died without issue, his title became extinct, and his estates
devolved upon his cousin, Robert Graham of Redgorton in Perthshire,
advocate, for a short time a lord of the Treasury in Lord Melbourne’s
administration.
GRAHAM, JOHN,
an eminent historical painter, was born at Edinburgh in 1754, and in
early life was apprenticed to Mr. Farquhar, at that period the
principal coach-painter in the Scottish metropolis. He was afterwards
employed as a coach-painter in London for many years. Having been
admitted a student of the Royal Academy, he was induced to devote his
attention to the more elevated walk of historical painting, which he
subsequently followed with great success. About 1798, on the death of
Mr. David Allan, he was appointed master of the Trustees’ Academy at
Edinburgh, which situation he filled with credit to himself, with
benefit to his pupils, and with advantage to the progress of the arts
in Scotland. This institution, originally founded to promote the
mechanical arts and manufactures of the country, for the instruction
in drawing of carvers, painters, weavers, &c., became, on the
accession of Mr Graham, a school of design. To this end the liberality
of the Board of Trustees greatly contributed, by their procuring for
the use of the pupils a magnificent set of casts fro the antique, only
surpassed in Britain by the collection of the Royal Academy in London.
Many young men who received the rudiments of their profession in the
Trustees’ Academy, under Mr. Graham, afterwards became celebrated for
their genius in art, of whom may be mentioned Sir David Wilkie, Mr.
John Burnet, the eminent engraver, and his brother, and Mr. William
Allan.
The
principal works painted by Mr. Graham are – David instructing Solomon,
in the possession of the earl of Wemyss; the Burial of General Frazer;
two pictures for the Shakspeare Gallery, &c. He also executed many
smaller works, and some portraits. His composition, though not
remarkable for any striking originality of conception, is pure and
chaste. In the distribution of his groups, in his large works, he was
singularly fortunate. His drawing, though without the vigour and
energy of the Florentine school, is correct; his draperies are large
and finely cast; his colouring excellent; and his handling broad and
masterly. His portraits, however, are inferior to his other works. He
also executed, with great truth and force of expression, several
pictures of lions, tigers, and other animals, from studies made fro
nature in the menagerie of the Tower. He died November 1, 1817, aged
63.
GRAHAME, SIMION,
or SIMEON,
a quaint old writer, THE SON OF Archibald Grahame, a burgess of
Edinburgh, was born in that city about 1570. He seems to have been
indebted for his education to the patronage of James the Sixth; and we
learn from the ‘Epistle Dedicatorie’ of his ‘Anatomie of Humours’ to
the earl of Montrose, that he was at different periods a traveller, a
soldier, and a courtier. Sir Thomas Urquhart describes him as “a great
traveller and very good scholar, but otherwise licentious, and given
over to all manner of debordings;” but we have the testimony of
Dempster, that, in his mature years, he became repentant, and assumed
the habit of St. Frances. He spent some time in exile on the
Continent, and when there wrote a poem addressed ‘From Italy to
Scotland, his Soyle.’ In 1604 he published at London a small
collection of poems, entitled ‘The Passionate Sparke of a Relenting
Minde,’ inscribed, in a long poetical dedication of fifty-nine verses,
to his earliest patron, James the Sixth. His ‘Anatomie of Humours’
appeared at Edinburgh in 1609, a work, principally prose, but
interspersed with verse, which Dr. Irving is of opinion may have
suggested to Burton the first idea of his ‘Anatomie of Melancholie,’
published in 1624. The two works mentioned are all of Grahame’s
writings that are extant, although both Urquhart and Dempster
represent his publications as numerous. Grahame subsequently retired
again to the Continent, and spent the last years of his life as an
austere Franciscan. He died at Carpentras, on his return to Scotland,
in 1614. A beautiful edition of his “Anatomie of Humours,’ and
‘Passionate Sparke,’ was printed by the Bannatyne Club in 1830.
GRAHAME, JAMES,
the author of ‘The Sabbath,’ and other poems, was the son of a writer
in Glasgow, where he was born April 22, 1765. He received the
rudiments of his education at the grammar school of his native city;
and after passing through a regular academical course at the
university there, he was removed to Edinburgh, in 1784, and
apprenticed to his cousin, Mr. Lawrence Hill, writer to the signet. N
the expiration of his apprenticeship, he became, in 1791, a member of
the Society of writers to the signet; but the confinement of the
writing desk being found injurious to his constitution, which was
naturally weak, he turned his attention to the bar, and, in March
1795, was admitted advocate. In March 1802 he married the eldest
daughter of Mr. James Grahame, town-clerk of Annan.
While at the
university, he had printed and circulated a collection of poetical
pieces, which, in an amended form, appeared in 1797, and in 1801 he
published ‘Mary Stuart, an Historical Drama.’ The poem on which his
reputation rests, ‘The Sabbath,’ made its appearance in 1804, and at
first was published anonymously. So cautious was he that he should not
be known as the author of this beautiful production, that we are told
he exacted a promise of secrecy from the printer he employed, and used
to meet him clandestinely, at obscure coffee-houses, in order to
correct the proofs, but never twice at the same house, for fear of
attracting observation. The work soon became popular; and on his wife
expressing her high admiration of it, he acknowledged himself the
author, much, as may be supposed, to her gratification. In 1805 he
brought out a second edition of ‘The Sabbath,’ to which he added
‘Sabbath Walks;’ and such was the demand for the book, that three
editions were called for in the same year. In 1806 he published the
‘Birds of Scotland, and other Poems;’ in 1807 he brought out his
‘Poems’ in 2 vols.; in 1809 appeared the ‘British Georgics,’ 4to; and,
in 1810, ‘Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade,’ embellished with
engravings from designs by Smirke.
From early
life, Mr. Grahame had entertained a strong prepossession for the
church, and his father’s death having released him from all with to
continue in the law, in May 1809 he went to London, where he was
ordained by the bishop of Norwich, and soon after obtained the curacy
of Shefton Mayne, in Gloucestershire, which he held till the
succeeding April, when he resigned it, owing to some family matters
requiring his presence in Edinburgh. While in Scotland, he was an
unsuccessful candidate for St. George’s Episcopal chapel in that city.
In the following August he was engaged to officiate for some time as
sub-curate of St. Margaret’s, Durham, where his eloquence as a
preacher soon collected a large congregation. Through the interest of
Mr. Barrington, the nephew of the bishop of Durham, he obtained the
curacy of Sedgefield in the same diocese, where he commenced his
duties on the 1st of May 1811; but the decline of his
health soon compelled him to revisit Edinburgh for medical advice.
After staying a short time there, he proceeded with his wife to
Glasgow, but died at Whitehill, the seat of his eldest brother, Mr.
Robert Grahame, on September 14, 1811, in the 47th year of
his age, leaving two sons and a daughter.
Life of Thomas Graham. Lord Lynedoch
By Alex. M. Delavoye, Captain 56th Foot (late 90th L.I.) (1880)
(pdf)
