Members of Parliament, Official Return, pts. i. ii.) His voting in 1710 in favour of Sacheverell made him immensely popular both in Westmoreland and Cumberland. In 1717 he was elected mayor of Appleby by a large majority. In 1722 he was a deputy-lieutenant for Westmoreland. For many years before his death Graham had a house in Stratton Street, near Devonshire House, London. In the latter part of his life he was a good deal at Charlton, the Wiltshire seat of his son-in-law, Lord Berkshire, where there still remains a collection of pictures, which, once the property of James II, was entrusted to Graham's keeping by William III. He died at Charlton on 26 Jan. 1729-30, and, in accordance with his latest wish, was buried there on 2 Feb. Though his epitaph in the church describes him as 'servant to King Charles and King James the Second,' and 'faithful to both,' he remained to the last on excellent terms with the court.
Graham was twice married, first at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, London, by license dated 22 Nov. 1675, to Dorothy (d. 1700), daughter of William Howard, fourth son of Thomas, first earl of Berkshire. By this lady, whom Evelyn mentions in terms of the highest praise for her beauty and virtues, he had three sons and two daughters. Of the sons, Henry (d. 1706-7) was M.P. for Westmoreland, William (d. 1716) rose to be a captain in the navy, and Richard died prematurely in 1697 as a commoner of University College, Oxford. A series of letters from him and his tutor, Hugh Todd, describing his college life and last illness, was, with altered names of persons and places, published by Francis Edward Paget in 1875, with the title 'A Student Penitent of 1695.' Graham's eldest daughter, Catherine (d. 1762), was married on 8 March 1708-9 to her first cousin, Henry Bowes Howard, fourth earl of Berkshire (Luttrell, vi. 415), who succeeded, in right of his wife, to the Levens estate; the youngest daughter, Mary, married John Michell of Richmond, Surrey, from whom she was separated, and lived until her death about 1718 with her father. Graham married secondly at St. Olave's, Hart Street, London, by license dated 4 March 1701-2, Elizabeth, widow of George Bromley of the Middle Temple, and daughter of Isaac Barton, merchant, of All Hallows Barking, London. She died in September 1709, leaving no issue by him (Chester, London Marriage Licences, 1521-1869, ed. Foster, cols. 190, 573). A portrait of Graham by Sir Peter Lely hangs in the library at Levens; a pencil drawing of him is at Elford Hall in Staffordshire; in both he appears as a decidedly handsome man, tall and thin, with a dark and somewhat melancholy cast of countenance. Horace Walpole describes him as having been a fashionable man in his day, and noted for his dry humour (Letters, ed. Cunningham, i. 234; see also 'Reminiscences of Courts of George I and II,' in Letters, ed. 1840, i. cvi-cvii). The manuscripts at Levens Hall, now belonging to Captain Josceline F. Bagot, are described in the Historical Manuscripts Commission's 10th Rep. pt. iv. 327-47. Graham seems to have destroyed all letters from his brother, Lord Preston, and from his intimate friend, Lord Sunderland. He kept only two letters from James II. He preferred to write his name 'Grahme.'
[Douglas's Peerage of Scotland (Wood), ii. 374; Some Records of the Ashtead Estate (by Francis Edward Paget); G. F. Weston's On the History and Associations of Levens Hall; Hist. HSS. Comm. 6th Rep. 321a, 7th Rep. 350b; Josceline Bagot's Colonel James Grahme of Levens (with portrait); Evelyn's Diary (1850-2), vol. ii.; Will registered in P.C.C. 64, Auber.]
GRAHAM, JAMES, fourth Marquis and first Duke of Montrose (d. 1742), was the eldest son of James, third marquis, by his wife, Lady Christian Leslie, second daughter of the Duke of Rothes, chancellor of Scotland. Being a minor at the death of his father in April 1684, he was, in accordanoe with his father's will, placed under the care of ten tutors, of whom his mother and the Earl of Haddington were to be sine quibus non. The Earl of Haddington having died, it was contended, when the young marquis's mother married Sir John Bruce younger of Kinross, that the tutory had become null, and the court of session so decided on 31 Jan. 1688 (Fountainhall, Historical Notices, p. 850). Two judges, Lords Harcarse and Edmonston, who had voted for the 'subsisting of it,' were removed from the bench on 29 Feb. following (ib. p. 856) by a special letter of the king. It was supposed that the king wished the young marquis to be brought up under catholic influences, but by this time he was hastening to his fall. Macky, writing of Montrose when he was twenty-five years of age, states that he was 'very beautiful in person,' possessed 'a sweetness of disposition which charmed all who knew him,' and had 'improved himself in most foreign courts' (Secret Memoirs). Swift's manuscript note to this flattering description of Montrose in his youth is, 'now very homely and makes a sorry appearance.'
In 1702 Montrose added greatly to his territorial influence by his purchase of the property of the Duke of Lennox, with many of its jurisdictions, including the hereditary sheriffdom
