 Graham History |
Few names or families in
Scotland, it has been said, can boast such
illustrious heroes as the "gallant Grahams". One
of the results is that their history is apt to be
overshadowed by the deeds of Montrose and Dundee,
not to mention a comrade-in-arms of Wallace and
one of Wellington's commanders in the Peninsula,
to go no farther than the leadership of men in
war. It is only by remembering those behind the
heroes, as well as the heroes themselves, that
the clan can be seen in any depth.
The earliest holder of the
name on record in Scotland was William de Graham,
a magnate at King David's court in the first half
of the 12th century, who received the lands of
Abercorn and Dalkeith. Sir John de Graham fell
gloriously at Falkirk in 1296, and Sir David,
whose name appears on the Arbroath declaration of
independence in 1320, exchanged with Bruce the
lands of Cardoss on the Clyde for those of Old
Montrose on the east coast. But the heart of the
Graham country is in central Scotland, the
districts of Menteith and Strathearn, where they
lived the anxious life of Lowland lairds on the
edge of the Highland hills.
A cadet, on marrying the
heiress of the ancient Earls of Stathearn, was
created Earl of Menteith in 1427, and Grahams
enjoyed that title for nine generations. In
Charles I's day the earl was Justice-General of
Scotland and President of the Scots Privy
Council, and was said to have boasted that he had
the reddest blood in Scotland and a better right
to the crown than the king himself. Graham
'clannishness' is illustrated by the anxiety of
his grandson to convey his titles and estates to
someone of the name able to preserve them both
(which led to some rivalry between the third
Marquess of Montrose and Graham of Claverhouse),
but on his death the lands passed to Montrose,
his personal estate to Graham of Gartmore, and
the title went into abeyance.
James Graham, fifth earl and
first Marquess of Montrose, whose character and
campaigns won him lasting fame, used to write to
other Grahams as 'your loving chief'. Patrick
Graeme younger of Inchbrakie, known as 'black
Pate', was his sole companion when he joined the
clans in Atholl at the start of the campaign, and
other clansmen were among his most devoted
followers. After the Restoration, when his
remains were gathered together for honoured
burial, David Graham of Gorthie took the head
from the iron spike on the Edinburgh Tolbooth in
the presence of the Graham barons of Morphie,
Inchbrakie and Orchill, and places were allotted
in the funeral pageant to the heads of the cadet
houses of Balgowan, Cairnie, Deuchrie, Drums,
Duntroon, Fintray, Killearn, Monzie and Potento.
It was a family as well as a national occasion.
In the Highlands especially
the memory of the 'great marquess' was held in
honour. There can be little doubt that the belief
that 'fortune and success was entailed on the
name of Graham' (as the Estates were told in
1689) helped John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount
of Dundee, in his short campaign for James VII,
which ended with his own death at Killiecrankie.
To note the 'clannishness' of
these great men is not imply that their interests
were limited. It was the third Duke of Montrose
who, as Marquess of Graham, M.P., secured the
repeal of the prohibition enacted after the 'Forty-Five against wearing the Highland dress. | |
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