Sketch XXXIII

Graeme of Damside, and Graeme of Duchray

FROM various wills and records which have been met with in the research for this volume, it seems to be likely that both the above families descend from Montrose and possibly from Inchbrakie.

We will take Damside first.  Over the gateway of a house in Perth there is carved a representation of the arms of Gorthie; from an heraldic point of view these arms are not strictly correct, but that was very common in the seventeenth century; "devices" were used and the arms altered to suit younger sons without taking out an official  "difference" from the Lyon Court; in fact the Lyon Court itself was not always actually correct, as may be seen from the various escutcheons drawn up for the birth brieves and funerals; that certain license was used may be shown by the arms of the Bishop of Dunblane and Orkney; and Smythes of Methven, where the former (in the many carvings of wood and stone with which he embellished his cathedral and his houses, and even his beds), places on the Inchbrakie Coat, a chessrook, one of the symbols from his ward's Coat; while Smythe of Braco carries an escallop of the Graeme!

A certain Robert Graham, Town Clerk of Perth, and of Damside near Auchterarder, is the Grxme whose forefathers I propose, at any rate to suggest, to those who are interested in research; it would appear from the arms over his gate that Robert Graham, the Town Clerk of Perth, not only considered he had a right to bear them, but that he wished to show his descent from Gorthie.  Bishop George Graeme, the son of the second Great Baron of Inchbrakie, was the first owner of Gorthie.

The earliest notice come to by the writer, of a Graham connected with Damside is in 1605, in the Register of the Great Seal, when a charter of confirmation by Edward Graham, son and heir of the late John Graham, portioner of Arbenny, is given to Lawrence Graham, tutor of Callender, with consent of Margaret Drummond his spouse, Patrick Graeme of Inchbrakie, John Graeme of Balgowan, and Andrew Graham, burgess of Perth (brother to Arbenny) of the lands of Arbenny in Maddertie; one witness is James Graham in Drumsad, a Notary Public.  This charter is quoted, but it must be observed that the witness is called "in," not "of," Damside, which may not prove ownership.

The next mention is in 1644, when Mercer's Chronicle tells us that Murdoch, the servant of James Smythe, was "beheadit" at the "croce" at Perth for the slaughter of Muckrobie, servitor to James Graham in Drumside.

By 1676 a Robert Graham is undoubtedly styled owner of Drumsad; for Anna Graham, daughter to the "umquhile Robert Graham of Drumsad," obtains sasine upon certain lands, houses, etc., lying within and about the burgh of Auchterarder; in 1677 on 12th June, Anna Graham, niece to the umquhile James Graham, minister at Glendevon, obtains sasine of forty shilling land of Drumsied, within the barony of Kincardine, from Sir William Graham of Braco and others, as factors to the Marquis of Montrose. 

Before going further we may show what became of this Anna or her first cousin.

In 1682, December 29th, Anna Graham, daughter to the umquhile Maister James Graham, minister of Glendevon, with consent of Mungo Graham her husband, makes a renunciation in favour of James Graeme of OrchiIl of an a'rent of £32, out of the lands of Rohalloch within Blackford Parish. 

It should be mentioned that a very full pedigree of the Grahams of Callender lie before the writer, and the names mentioned above do not tally as to name and date with that family.

It is possible the above umquhile Robert Graham was a grandson of Bishop George Graeme of Orkney; anyone interested will find in Sketch XXX I. a short account of the Bishop's sixth son Robert;  he had five sons, David, Robert, Henry, James, and John, and it may not be difficult to prove that the second Robert was of Drumsad.

Certainly the daughter and niece of the Robert and James of the sasines was much mixed up with Orchill and Inchbrakie, which shows a certain amount of kinship;  her name of Anna points to the latter family and this again shows kinship with the Bishop.

The next sasine with regard to the Grahams of or in Aberuthven, brings us to Robert Graham, the town clerk who was probably son of the "Umquhill Robert" of the sasine of 1676, and we will give a slight sketch of him and his descendants.

Robert Graham, Writer in Perth, was admitted in Edinburgh as a Notary Public on 12th April 1682; his age as "22 years or thereby; " in "his dockett" he styles himself "Clericus Dunblanensis dioceses"; this shows he was not a native of Perth, and Auchterarder and Aberuthven both lie in Dunblane. "Quoe vide testor" was his notarial motto.

Robert Graham was appointed Deputy Town Clerk in 1694, when James Oliphant, his predecessor in that office, died; Robert became "tutor" to the children of the late town clerk, this is stated in the Gask Charter Chest where lies a band given by the Laird of Gask to Euphame Watson, the relict of James Oliphant, dated 1701; these children were named Grizel, who married Andrew Darling; Margaret, who married Robert Oliphant; and Jean married a minister of the name of Irving.

Robert Graham took the oaths 15th Sept. 1694 at the "Gild seat;" he appears to have been possessed of a certain amount of estate, for he does not hesitate to accept the office though he has to pay 1000 merks, which the town has been owed for twenty-four years from various persons who held that appointment; they however enact that if he dies before 1697, the next town clerk takes up the burden.

On 23rd Sept. 1697 Robert Graham bought a tumble-down old house on the north side of the Northgate; here he built a handsome house for that period; the principal entrance remains untouched in this twentieth century.  A pediment stone is carved at the apex with a rose, at the two base corners the escallop shell; this shows his descent from Montrose.  On the keystone is a man's face (instead of a skull as in Gorthie's case) held between two hands crowned with a Marquis' coronet.  The initials R. G. and E. C. with date 1699 finish the work; this, I take it, proves descent from the Bishop who was owner of Gorthie.  If Robert is a Royalist he has heard from his childhood of David of Gorthie's duty at the obsequies, and with his imagination fired by the deed and death of his kinsman, he would not stop to trace out the Bishop's coat (all the many carvings of it were up in Orkney) but take that nearest at hand from his kinsman Gorthie, the Bishop's son.

Robert chose his wife from the Cunninghames of Coull, who rented an estate as portioners near his own home of Aberuthven; the estate of Coull was a bonny one in those days, a nice avenue still remains; Mr Cunninghame was the factor for Inchbrakie's Aberuthven estates, at any rate Elspeth's brother was, and Elspeth becomes Robert Graham's wife.

Their marriage contract has not been seen, but it is alluded to in the sasine of lands of Woodside of Kincardine made for a bond of provision to Elspeth in 1706; Elspeth had further in 1711 an annuity of £100, and William Cunninghame acts as her attorney.  Eight children were born between the years 1692 and 1707; James, John, Mungo and David all bear the names given by the Bishop to his sons; Thomas is their youngest son; Helen, Isabel and Euphame are daughters.

In 1713 Robert makes a namesake; a young writer, who has been his servitor for nine years; Town Clerk Depute.

The same year a Doctor George Graham who was an M.D. in Perth, is obliged to go to Orkney, and arranges with Robert Graham the Clerk Depute (whose wife was a Miss Balvaird), to gather in his debts which were of large amount; this George was a great-grandson of the Bishop and died in Orkney, 1715.

By 1716 Robert the Town Clerk has bad health and retires; he pleads "becoming valetudinary tender by reason of the gout," he is repaid his 1000 merks and receives a pension of 200 merks yearly; the witnesses to the agreement are John and Mungo Grahame, his sons.

Robert, by this time designated of Damsyde, assigns to his eldest son Mr James Graham, a writer in Edinburgh, all debts "resting" to Robert on his decease and all rents of lands due to him.

Robert died in the year 1719; he had acquired at different times various land, Damside, Kirklands of Aberuthven, Woodside of Kincardine, Wester Linds and Baillie lands of Aberuthven. The latter he sold to David Haldane of Aberuthven, whose wife was Mary Graeme; the Town Clerk did not fail to be bitten like his kinsmen with the Darien Scheme to which he subscribed £25.

His eldest son, James Graeme, became of Damside and married as presently shown.

There is a couple of services to heirs which make it appear that there may have been two James Graemes of Damside in succession ; they are James Graeme, W.S. "to his father Robert Graham, Town Clerk of Perth, Heir General, 28 July 1740," and "James Grahame writer in Edinburgh to James Grahame his father, writer there," 13th Dec. 1758.  Cum beneficio Inventorii.

Of course it may be argued that no Damside is mentioned in the latter service, but neither is it in the former which is unquestionably Damside's;  why a service was taken out so long after the Town Clerk's is shown presently.

In 1763 Mr James Graeme of Damside, Writer to the Signet, is dead, and on 6th March 1764, Bethia Graeme is served heir to her father James Graeme, W.S., and in 1774 the Scots Magazine records her marriage at Edinburgh, September 5th: "Colonel David Hepburn to Miss Graham of Damside."

The death is recorded at Luffness of a "Mrs Graham, widow of Mr James Graham of Damside on 5th June 1776;" this modern way of recording the event prevents us being aware of her maiden name.  She was probably his second wife, Miss Deans.

The above is all (except the Ochtertyre MS.) from public records;  from a private source a pedigree appended shows that James Graeme of Damside married twice;  his first wife in 1728 being Christian Balfour, daughter of Balfour of Balbirnie, who had an only daughter Agnes.  She married Mr John Simson of Bownton, County Fife; her only son George Simson of Pitcorthie married and has issue.  Mr Graeme of Damside married secondly in 1740 (which would account for his being served heir in that year to his father) Bethia Deans of Woodhouselea.  Once again James Graeme is fated to have an only daughter, Bethia, who marries on September 5th, 1774, Colonel David Hepburn, second son of Hepburn of Congleton by his wife Miss Keith of the Earl Marischal's family; their two sons continue the line of Hepburn and their youngest daughter Graeme Hepburn is grandmother to the seventh Earl of Glasgow.

The property of Damside passed into the hands of the Duncans of Galloford, Perthshire; Patrick Duncan of Damside having died in 1798 leaving no children, his heir Mr James Beveridge of Blackheath, Kent, assumed the name of Duncan in compliance with his cousin's will; Mr Beveridge Duncan left issue, a son and one daughter;  she married Warwick, third and last Viscount Lake, and had issue, two daughters.  Mr Beveridge Duncan's only son married 1829 Elizabeth, daughter of Robert Ross of Oakbank;  their only child and heiress Elizabeth married in 1856 Hector C. R. Macduff, Esq., and has issue besides daughters, a son, Hector Macduff Duncan of Kirklands, Aberuthven.

Mr and Mrs Hector C. R. Macduff-Duncan reside at Damside.  There is a burial-place apportioned to Damside, in Aberuthven old church, of St Kattans.

The Dukes of Montrose, the Graemes of Inchbrakie, and Orchill, and Damside, all had rights of burial in that church.

It must be borne in mind that the writer of these suggestions as to the origin of Robert Graham, Town Clerk of Perth, only sets them down as suggestions and not in any way asserting them to be positively correct, though admitting on the face of them it may be possible to prove his correct antecedents from this sketch.

GRAHAM OR GRAHAM STIRLING OF DUCHRAY, CADET OF INCHBRAKIE

The above is a quotation from Burke's General Armoury for 1884. I give a few details of the family in the older generations below, the above heading is continued as follows in the Armoury.  1st and 4th.  Or on a bend engr. az. between two roses gules three buckles or for Stirling.  2nd.  Or a wall broken down in some parts Az. between a crescent in the collas point and a rose in base gules on a chief engr. sable three escallops of the field for Graeme.  3rd.  Or a saltire engr. azure on a chief of the last three stars of the field for Murray.

Crest an eagle displayed ppr. in his dexter talon a sword in his sinister a pistol the last.

Mottoes: "For Right" and "Noctes diesque prasto."

The first mention I find of Graham of Duchray is about the middle of the seventeenth century, when he is established as of Duchray, and marries Marion, the grand-daughter and heiress of Graham of Rednock (son of the fourth Earl of Menteith).  This was the Graham of Duchray who raised the body of forty-two men who were never disbanded, and are now represented by the 42nd, the famous Black Watch.

In my own mind there is little doubt that this was John the second son of Patrick Graeme, the third of Inchbrakie, he was the richest baron of that race, and well able to endow a son with the lands of Duchray.

John married the heiress of Rednock, and in consequence, obeyed the command of her chief, to raise the guard for the passes of Menteith and Aberfoyle.  This guard was known in the district as the "forty-twa."  The name still sticks to the Black Watch, and it is said General Monck's order to Menteith to raise these men is in the Gartmore Charter Chest; some of the Inchbrakie papers state he was killed in action;  the part he took in this matter would occasion very strained relations between him and his brother, George Graeme, the fourth baron, and his nephew, Black Pate, the fifth of Inchbrakie, and thus little intercourse occur between Inchbrakie and Duchray or Rednock.  However, Duchray took the new coat of Inchbrakie with the wall "broken down in some places" to show his descent from the latter house.

"A gift of pension passed in Exchequer in favour of John Graeme of Deuchrew," 1686, is an entry in the diary of Lord Fountainhall.

By 1704 Thomas Graham or Graeme is the owner of Duchray and Commissioner for Perthshire.

In 1756 we find a strong clan of the Grahams of Duchray in the 42nd Regiment. Thomas Graham of Duchray is a captain (this must be the son of the Commissioner of 1704) and a younger brother John is ensign; in 1758 the latter is a lieutenant, while in 1758 we find the regiment is commanded by Colonel Graham at the Battle of Ticonderoga; in 1763 there are two John Grahams mentioned in the casualty list?a Lieut. John Graham killed, and a Captain John Graham of Duchray wounded; below is given the account of Lieut. John Graham's death.  He served abroad in America with the 42nd Royal Highlanders, Lord John Murray's Regiment as it was then called. His death is recorded in despatches in 1763.

At this time the Detroit Indians were giving trouble in North America, and had cruelly killed our garrison. Sir Jeffrey Amherst was Commander-in-Chief of the various forces in North America;  Colonel Bouquet with a force of 450 men set out for Fort Pitt, and in his despatch of August 5th, 1763, dated from Edgehill, which lay twenty-six miles from Fort Pitt, he states that at one o'clock that afternoon after a march of seventeen miles the savages suddenly attacked his advance guard, which was immediately supported by two companies of the 42nd, who drove off the enemy from their ambuscade and pursued them;  but the enemy returning, Colonel Bouquet made a general advance and dislodged them from their heights without obtaining any direct advantage, for as soon as driven from one post they appeared on another, gradually surrounding the British and attacked their convoy in the rear. Captain-Lieutenant Graham and Lieutenant James Mackintosh of the 42nd were killed.

The enemy retired during the night, but the whole of the next day was spent in continual fighting, the handful of troops only gaining Fort Pitt on the 10th.  The two actions are named as Edgehill near Bushy run.

It is, however, just possible that the preceding refers to John Graeme of Inchbrakie, a son of Patrick the seventh baron.

Thomas Graham of Duchray was gazetted Lt.-Col. of the 42nd in 1770, and retired in 1771, having seen thirty years' service;  we find his death recorded in the magazines of the year 1773, there is no mistake about the spelling here, "June 18th, at Stirling, Thomas Graeme of Duchray, Esq., late Lt.-Col. in the 42nd Regiment;  and in 1774 we find his brother John served heir to Colonel Thomas Graeme, this John is styled John Graeme, Captain of Deuchray, heir male special in Over Duchray, Stirlingshire, and in Easter and Wester Rednock, Perthshire, while almost at the same period there dies in Bengal, Ensign John Graham, the son of Captain John Graham Duchrie!  Then in 1790 his youngest daughter Jean dies at his house of Rednock on Feb. 6th, and lastly, John Graham of Duchray himself, in October of the same year, departs at his house of Rednock, late captain in the 42nd.

John Graeme or Graham, living until this date, confirms to me the fact that it was John Graeme of Inchbrakie who was killed at Fort Pitt, and not John Graham of Duchray as stated in one of the histories of the 42nd Regiment. Captain John Graham had married Christian Murray, a daughter of the late Robert Murray of Glencarnock, Esq.;  she died in Edinburgh, 17th Nov. 1792 Of their surviving children we know only of two sons?Robert, who succeeded and became a Writer to the Signet in Edinburgh;  he apparently died unmarried or childless in about 1818, and "Alexander Graham (Stirling), Lieut.-General of Duchray and Auchyle," is served heir to his brother Robert Graham, W.S., 27th Aug. 1818, and again on March 4th, 1819 he appears to have taken the name of Stirling in addition to Graham; we find him once more in the services of heirs on 28th June 1825, when his son Alexander Graham (no Stirling surname is mentioned), a lieutenant in the Royal Scots Regiment, has died in June 1825.  One more record of this race of soldiers is found on a tombstone showing that the youngest son of the above, Lieut.-General Graham-Stirling of Duchray and Auchyle, has died.

LIEUT.-COLONEL THOMAS GRAHAM,

youngest son of General Alexander Graham Stirling of Duchray and Auchyle and late of the 1st Royal Regiment, died at Haslar Hospital on his return from the Crimea, 2nd Nov. 1855, in the forty-sixth year of his age and the thirtieth of his service.  His mortal remains rest in the family burying-ground, Port of Menteith.

If any of the descendants of the Grahams of Duchray survive, this short mention of that family will not have been in vain.