Robert Graham of Gartmore

Robert Graham (1735 – 1797) who took the name Cunninghame Graham, was a Scottish politician and poet. He is now remembered for a poem "If doughty deeds my lady please", which was later set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan.

He changed name twice; firstly, under the terms of an entail by which he inherited the Ardoch estate from William Bontine, he took the surname Bontine until his father died. Secondly, he assumed the name Cunninghame Graham on the death in 1796 of John Cunninghame, 15th Earl of Glencairn and last in line. From him Robert inherited the Finlaystone estate, so that he is often known as Robert Cunninghame Graham of Gartmore and Finlaystone.

He was at the time a Member of Parliament, for Stirlingshire, having been elected in 1794. He was a pro-Jacobin of that time, and identified as a Radical. [citebook|title=Members of Parliament, Scotland, Including the Minor Barons|author=Joseph Foster|year= 1882|publisher=Hazell, Watson, and Viney]

He was born at Gartmore, Perthshire, and educated at the University of Glasgow. He spent much of his early life in Jamaica, where he was a planter and merchant, and became Receiver-General for Taxes. He married Anna, sister of Sir John Taylor Bt of Lyssons Hall, in 1764 as recorded in the Cunninghame Graham Family Bible. [ Now in the possession of W R B Cunninghame Graham of Gartmore ]

On returning to Scotland, he was appointed Rector of the University of Glasgow, holding the position from 1785 to 1787.

Footnotes

References

*"Doughty Deeds, an account of the life of Robert Graham of Gartmore, poet and politician, 1735-1797" (1925) R. B. Cunninghame Graham (his great-great-grandson)

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