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Amongst the chiefs of border clans who
figure most frequently in the poems of Sir Walter Scott, is ‘The Graham,'
or, as the name is spelt and pronounced north of the Tweed, the Graeme.
The Grahams are not Highlanders, but Lowlanders, and their name is as well
known to the south of the Scottish border as to the north of it. They have
been from early times a gallant and loyal race, and various members of
that race have done good service to the crown of Scotland. They have won a
long list of honors, including knighthoods without number, some five or
six baronetcies, four Scottish baronies, one viscountcy, two earldoms, a
marquisate, and a dukedom, to say nothing of an English earldom and an
English barony; and their head is hereditary sheriff of Dumbartonshire, in
which county, on the fair banks of Loch Lomond, stands the princely
residence of the Duke of Montrose, Buchanan Castle.
The clan would seem to
have been settled at Dalkeith and at Abercorn from the days of King David
I. The names of several Graemes appear as witnesses to charters and other
grants in favor of the Monastery of Newbattle, in Jedburghshire, in the
twelfth century; and early in the thirteenth century David Graeme received
a grant of broadlands near Montrose from William the Lion. Another Graeme,
Sir John, of Dundaff, joined the standard of Sir William Wallace, and fell
at the battle of Falkirk in 1289. Three years later his brother, Sir
David, a nominee of Baliol for the Scottish Crown, swore fealty to Edward
III., and afterwards, when taken prisoner by that king, was released from
captivity on condition of serving in the wars against France. His son, Sir
Patrick Graeme, of Kincardine, sat in the Parliament held at Scone in
1284, when Margaret, ‘The Maiden of Norway,' was acknowledged heir to the
Scottish throne. He, too, swore fealty to Edward, but afterwards took up
arms against his superior lord, and fell fighting against the English at
Dunbar. This warrior's grandson, Sir David Graham, was one of those who
signed the famous letter to the Pope in 1320, asserting the independence
of Scotland and the firm resolve of its nobles not to become the vassals
of the English crown.
A clan so resolute and
bravo, with its members for the most part so loyal to their king and
country, could scarcely fail to be frequently mentioned in the history of
those troubles times, during which the English
were 'moving heaven and earth' to subjugate the hardy sons of Caledonia,
under the pretense of strengthening both counties by their union under one
crown. It may be said with truth that, next to the name of Bruce and
Wallace, the name of Graeme is most frequent in the annals of Scottish
patriotism during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries. The
name figures largely in Border poetry, and the brave Malcolm Grime is not
quite unknown to readers of the ' Lady of the Lake.' On one occasion only
do we read of the spirit of a Graeme leading him into an act of traitorous
parricide: and then the motive was a blind desire for revenge,
unpardonable indeed, but not unprecedented in the blood-stained annals of
either Scotland or England. With this exception, it would seem as if the
House of Montrose might well have borrowed the proud motto of the Paulets,
Aimez Loyaulte, and have borne it from first to last without fear of
challenge.
Sir Walter Scott, in
his 'History of Scotland,' records at much length, and with picturesque
power, the assassination of King James 1. (of that country) whilst keeping
Christmas with his court at Perth, in 1436-7, by the, hands of Sir Robert
Graham, uncle to the Earl of Stratherne, in revenge for an injury done to
him in respect of that earldom. By this act, for which he was executed,
Sir Robert probably changed the whole course of Scottish history--how and
in what direction it would be hard to say. Probably his act had, at all
events, one distant effect, in that it hastened on the day of the Union.
'It is certain,' says Sir
Bernard Burke in his 'Peerage,' ‘that no family of North Britain can
boast a greater antiquity than the Grahams.' He traces them up to Sir
David Graeme of Old Montrose, in Forfarshire--an estate obtained by his
father, Sir David, of Kincardine, for the estate of Cardross, from Robert
I.--a personage remarkable for his bravery and patriotism, and one of the
Scottish barons employed to negotiate the ransom of King David II., when
made prisoner in the battle of Durham in 1346; and Sir David's son, Sir
Patrick, laird of Dundaff and Kincardine, was one of the hostages by whom
the release of the King was eventually accomplished. His son Sir William
married, as his second wife, the Lady Mary Stuart, second daughter of King
Robert III. This Sir William's grandson, Patrick, being one of the lords
of the regency during the minority of James II. (of Scotland), was made a
peer of Parliament about 1445 by the title of Lord Graham; and again this
nobleman's grandson, William, the third lord, who was raised to the
earldom of Montrose in 1505, in reward of his gallantry at the battle of Sauchieburn (in which his royal master fell), was eventually slain at
Flodden, fighting under the standard of James IV. The third earl--though
not actually a lawyer-was for six or seven years Chancellor of Scotland,
and subsequently, in 1604, was made viceroy of that kingdom.
The fifth earl, the
illustrious royalist commander, one of the few characters who figure in
history as really and truly noble from first to last, was created Marquis
of Montrose, and, having gained many brilliant victories over the forces
of Argyle and the Army of the Covenant, being defeated at Philipbaugh by
General Leslie, was carried a prisoner to Edinburgh, tried, found guilty
of treason, and condemned to death, and executed before the Tolbooth with
all possible indignity. The house in the Canongate from which the
Covenanters gazed down on their victim as he was led to the scaffold is
still shown to visitors. ‘His quartered remains,' says Burke, 'after
being exposed, were interred under the gallows where he suffered; but, at
the Restoration, Charles II. had them dug up again, and buried in state in
the Cathedral of St. Giles'; at present, though the exact spot where he
lies is known and pointed out by the guides, no monument or inscription
records his tragic end. James, the second marquis, was known as ‘the good
Montrose'; and his grandson, another James, who became the fourth marquis
in 1684, was raised to the ducal title in 1707. It is not a little
singular that four dukes in succession should have held the title of
Montrose between them only ten years short of two centuries.
Among the many distinguished persons whom the clan Graeme has
produced in modern times, I ought not to forgot to mention the gallant Sir
Thomas Graham, one of the heroes of the Peninsular campaigns under
Wellington, who was rewarded for his military services with the title of
Lord Lynedoch; and, to come to a more recent date, the late Sir James
Graham, of Netherby, some time First Lord of the Admiralty, and a member
of the cabinets of Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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