Badge—Laurel spurge.
The surname Græme, or Graham, is said to be derived from the Gaelic word grumach, applied to a person of a stern countenance and manner. It may possibly, however, be connected with the British word grym, signifying strength, seen in grime’s dyke, erroneously called Graham’s dyke, the name popularly 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 the fabulous Eugene the Second, broke through the mighty rampart erected by the Romans between the rivers Forth and Clyde. It is unfortunate for this fiction that the first authenticated person who bore the name in North Britain was Sir William de Græme (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 Grimesdike was applied to trenches, roads, and boundaries, and was not confined to Scotland.
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. His grandson, 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.
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. The son of 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, acquired from Malise, Earl of Strathearn, 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; and Sir David, one of the nominees, his eldest brother being another, of Baliol, in his competition for the crown of Scotland, 1292. His eldest son, Sir Patrick Graham of Kincardine, fell in battle against the English at Dunbar, 28th April 1296. Another son, Sir David de Graham, a favourite name among the early Grahams, was also designed of Kincardine. From Robert the First, in consideration of his good and faithful services, he had several grants, and exchanged with that monarch his property of Cardross in Dumbartonshire for the lands of “Old Montrose” in Forfarshire. He died in 1327.
Sir William Graham of Kincardine, his great-grandson, was frequently employed in negociations with the English relative to the liberation of King James the First. 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; 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. 3. William, ancestor of the Grahams of Garvoch 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. 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.
William, third Lord Graham, sat in the first parliament of King James the Fourth, 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. 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 Græmes of Inchbrakie, Perthshire; and Andrew, 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.