William Graham

Notes:

"Lord Graham sat in the Parliaments of James III in 1479, 1481, 1482 and 1487, and supported the cause of that monarch against his son and the confederated Lords, being present on the royal side at the battle of Sauchieburn, 11 June 1488. He was soon received into favour, and even familiar friendship, by James IV, and sat in this sovereign's first Parliament 6 October 1488, and in the second 6 February 1491-92. His principal acquisitions were the estates of Aberuthven and Inchbrakie in Perthshire. Between 7 July7 and 20 November 1503 he was created EARL OF MONTROSE, and sat as such in Parliament 3 February 1505-6. On 3 March 1504-5 as William, Earl of Montrose, he had had a charter upon his own resignation of the lands of Old Montrose, which lands, the charter bears, belonged hereditarily to him by the grant of Robert I and the confirmation of David II under their Great Seals, to his predecessors, and which James IV now erected into the free barony and earldom of Montrose. Of the same date he had three other charters, viz. a new erection of the barony of Kincardine, of Aberuthven, Inchbrakie, and others united into a barony of Aberuthven, and of Kynnaber in Forfarshire also erected into a barony. The Earl accompanied James IV in his ill-starred invasion of England, and fell at Flodden, 'sub vexillo regis,' along with his brother George of Callendar, and his brother-in-law, Sir William Edmondstone of Duntreath, 9 September 1513." [The Scots Peerage, citation details below.]

Notes:

She was definitely a daughter of the first earl of Montrose. The will of William Graham, who was killed at the battle of Flodden Field in 1513, acknowledges a debt to the Laird of Luss (i.e. John Colquhoun, father of Humphrey), on account of his daughter's dowry, and also the Laird of Luss younger (i.e. Humphrey).

Burke's Peerage and Burke's Landed Gentry, and thus many online sources, show William Graham's daughters Margaret, Elizabeth, and Helen, in that order, as daughters of William Graham by his second wife Janet Edmondstone.

This cannot be true of Elizabeth. The Complete Peerage 4:470 says that Walter Drummond, grandson of John Drummond and Elizabeth Lindsay, "m., in Feb. 1513/4, his cousin Elizabeth, 2nd da. of William (Graham), 1st Earl of Montrose [S.], by his first wife Annabel, 4th da. of John (Drummond), Lord Drummond abovenamed." It can be seen that if Walter Drummond and his wife Elizabeth were cousins, it would have to be the case that Elizabeth was a daughter of William Graham's first wife, Annabel Drummond.

CP says of Annabel Drummond that "[s]he was living 1492" and that her son William Graham, second earl of Montrose, was "a minor at his father's death", 9 Sep 1513, but "was served heir to him" 24 Oct 1513. The Scots Peerage narrates this latter event in a way that suggests that the younger William was still a minor on 24 Oct 1513: "William […] was under age at the death of his father, but in virtue of the Act of 24 August, was served his heir 24 October, 1513." SP goes on to emphasize and extoll his precocity: "He early displayed qualities of prudence and statesmanship which enabled him, over a long life," [etc.]. CP notes that the younger William "was present in Parl. [S.] 2 Jun 1514" and that he married his only wife, Janet Keith, in Dec 1515. All of which suggests that the second earl attained his majority no earlier than the end of 1513, which means that he has to have been born to Annabel Drummond no earlier than the end of 1492, and given that he could perfectly well have married while still a minor, plausibly as late as 1497 or 1498.

Also, according to SP, William Graham and Annabel Drummond had a second son following William: "Walter, a younger son of the first marriage, who had a tack of Little Cairnie for nineteen years from the Abbot of Inchaffray, 8 January 1541-42, and appears to have been ancestor of the second family of the Grahams of Thornick, afterwards Cairnie." If so, this moves the end of Annabel Drummond's life to no earlier than the end of 1493. And again, given that the first son could easily have been born as late as 1497-98, she was quite possibly still living in 1498-99.

The date of William Graham's marriage to Janet Edmondstone is unknown to us, but the earliest record of them as married is a charter dated 17 Mar 1505. According to CP she died between that date and 15 Apr 1506.

The papal dispensation for Helen Graham's marriage to Humphrey Colquhoun was dated 13 Jul 1509.

If Annabel Drummond died as soon as the records allow, say December 1493, and William Graham married Janet Edmondstone as soon as possible, say the first part of 1494, and Helen Graham was their first child, born say early 1495, then the papal dispensation for her marriage to Humphrey Colquhoun, dated 13 Jul 1509, was issued when she was fourteen. Which is hardly unheard-of among the aristocracy of 15th/16th century Scotland, but also adds up to a pretty tight fit.

Additional to this is the fact that William Graham and Annabel Drummond married in 1479, and yet their eldest son and heir cannot have been born earlier than late 1513. It is implausible that they spent the first dozen years of their marriage having no children. We have seen that daughter Elizabeth has to have been the issue of William and Annabel. Margaret is specified by SP as a daughter of the second marriage. Aside from the fact that this implies, in SP's usual manner of listing offspring, that the other daughters, whose mothers are not noted, were from the first marriage, it also means that Helen, Jean, and Elizabeth are the only known offspring of William Graham whose birth can be used to fill the childbearing years from 1480 to 1492. (The other legitimate child of William Graham, Patrick, is given by SP as his son by his third wife, Christian Wawane.)

Taken together, we think the evidence preponderantly suggests that Helen Graham was a daughter of William Graham's first wife, and probably, as the order of William's children in SP suggests, his eldest daughter.

Helen married Humphrey Colquhoun about 13 Jul 1509. Humphrey (son of John Colquhoun and Elizabeth Stewart) was born in of Luss, Argyll, Scotland; died in Jan 1538. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lady Aikitt, elder, sheriffdom of Ayr.

"In 1578-79, another of [the Colquhoun] clan, Helen Colquhoun, was accused of the 'treasonable administering of poysoun' to her spouse, William Cunninghame of Aiket; but the fragmentary records give us little information about these trials…" ["Poisoning in Scotland", citation details below]

The will of Helene Colquhoun, Lady Aikitt, elder, sheriffdom of Ayr, was proved in the Edinburgh commissary court on 13 Mar 1596.

The 1877 Colquhoun pedigree ("Colquhoun of Luss", citation details below) shows Helen Colquhoun, daughter of Humphrey, marrying a "James" Cunningham of Aiket; it also gives her mother's name as "Katherine", rather than Helen, a mistake that also appears in many Burke's Pedigrees products. In a pair of posts to soc.genealogy.medieval on 10 Oct 2019, John Brandon points out that the papal dispensation of 1509 clearly identifies Humphrey Colquhoun's wife as Helen. As to whether Humphrey Colquhoun's and Helen Graham's daughter Helen was indeed, the Helen who married Cunningham of Aiket, Brandon points to the marriage of Robert Graham of Knockdolian, who was known to have been involved in dealings with William and Helen (Colquhoun) Cunningham, to Christian Graham, daughter of the second William Graham, 2nd earl of Montrose — further evidence of Graham-Colquhoun prosopographical adjancency.

Helen married William Cunningham before 24 Oct 1564. William was born in of Aiket, Ayrshire, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

"Marion Cunningham, Lady Bar, died at her home in Ayr in January 1623. She was the daughter of William Cunningham of Aiket and Helen Colquhoun, daughter of a Highland chief. […] She grew up in an age of aggression in northern Ayrshire, the time of the great feud betewen the Montgomery Earl of Eglinton and the Cunningham Earl of Glencairn which lasted over seventy years in the sixteenth century." [Ayr and Its People, citation details below]

Marion married John Lockhart in 1595 in Stewarton, Ayrshire, Scotland. John (son of Alexander Lockhart and Margaret Kennedy) died in 1614. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Janet married John Cunningham before 8 Jan 1634. John (son of William Cunningham and Agnes Cunningham) died before 17 Apr 1672. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Margaret married Alexander Lockhart before 17 Apr 1672. Alexander died before 11 Apr 1684; was buried on 11 Apr 1684 in Greyfriars Burying Ground, Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Michael Wallace. Michael died in Ramelton, Donegal, Ireland. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

From research published in recent years on soc.genealogy.medieval, Margaret Wallace would appear to be, like her husband the Rev. Thomas Craighead, a "gateway ancestor" for TWK.

Jan Wolfe, post to soc.genealogy.medieval, 4 Oct 2019:

Ed Craighead obtained digital images of the court documents in the dispute between Thomas Craighead and Margaret Cunningham (see 1693/94 item in the "Chronicle" for Thomas Craighead and Margaret Wallace on my website, http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bobwolfe/gen/mn/m11456x11467.htm). When Ed requested the documents from the National Archives of Scotland, they were found to be in need of restoration and preservation and that work was completed before the images were provided to Ed.

The information on my website about the parents of Margaret Wallace is from the documents in the Craighead-Cunningham dispute. With these documents, Ed Craighead has positively identified Margaret's father as Michael Wallace of Ramelton/Rathmelton in co. Donegal, Ireland, and her mother as Michael's relict Barbara Cunningham who was age sixty on 22 February 1694 when she made a deposition in the case. Further, the documents indicate that Barbara was the sister of Margaret Cunningham who was the relict of Alexander Lockhart, writer in Edinburgh, one of the under clerks of sessions. The contract of marriage in which Margaret Cunningham had agreed to pay Thomas Craighead double what she gave to any other nephew or niece was signed on June 20, 1688, and registered in 1691. John Wallace, apothecary and burgess in Edinburgh and brother of Margaret Wallace, had received 3000 Merks from Margaret Cunningham, but there was a dispute about whether that payment was a gift to him as her nephew or for another matter. At the time of the court proceedings which started in December 1693, Master Thomas Craighead was an Alchemist in Edinburgh. One of the witnesses in the case was a John Cunningham younger writer to ye majesty's signet.

"ravinmaven", post to soc.genealogy.medieval, 7 Oct 2019:

The two documents that make us think John Cunningham and Janet Lockhart [of Dalkeith / Dankeith] are the parents of Margaret and Barbara:

Repository: National Records of Scotland
Reference: GD3/1/9/20/8
Title: Disposition and assignation by Alexander Lockhart in favour of Margaret Cunninghame
Dates: 17 Apr 1672
Access status: Open
Location: Off site
Description: Disposition and assignation by Alexander Lockhart in favour of Margaret Cunninghame, his spouse, (lawful daughter to unquhile John Cunninghame, procreat between him and unquhile Janet Lockhart) and the heirs to be procreat between them which failing Margaret, her own nearest and lawful heirs and assignees whomsoever of the foresaid lands reserving his own liferent
Dated at Wrightshouses near the burgh of Edinburgh
Level: Item
Previous numbers: GD3/1/3321

+ + + + + + + +

Repository: National Records of Scotland
Reference: GD149/149
Title: Charter de me by John Conyngham, younger of Dankeithe, and Janet Lockhart, his spouse, to Sir William Conynghame of Caprintoune and Isobel Hamilton, his spouse, of the half merk land of Hoilhous in parish of Symontoune and bailiary of Kylstewart
Dates: 8 Jan 1634
Access status: Open
Location: Off site
Level: File

Family/Spouse: Rev. Thomas Craighead. Thomas (son of Rev. Robert Craighead and Agnes Heart) was born about 1670 in Donoughmore, Donegal, Ireland; died in Apr 1739 in Newville, Cumberland, Pennsyvania. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Thomas married Margaret Brownnear Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts. Margaret (daughter of George Brown and Margaret Macky) was born in 1702 in Ireland; died on 13 Sep 1765; was buried in White Clay Creek, New Castle, Delaware. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]