History
of the Graham name
Although Graham is generally regarded as Scottish the general
opinion is that our Grahams were Irish.
Apparently the Irish Grahams are descended from the Scottish Grahams,
they were the ones that were kicked out of Scotland for being trouble
makers! The Stockport connection was
unknown before I started the family history research, we are unlikely to answer
this Irish question until I find out more about Thomas Graham.
The
following information is taken from www.northeastengland.talktalk.net
26 Sept 2007
GRAHAM a
Border Reiver name
The
Grahams were a Border family found in both England and Scotland, but were
associated primarily with the region between Cumberland and Dumfrieshire.
During the border raids of Tudor times, the Grahams were one of the most
troublesome families hereabouts. Grahams were noted for their regular forays
into Northumberland, where their arch enemies were the Robsons of North
Tynedale. In 1552 the border Grahams were said to number five hundred and
occupied thirteen fortified towers. It is claimed that the Grahams were descended
from a man called Graeme, who in Roman times helped to breach the Antonine
Wall, a great wall between the Rivers Clyde and Forth, but this has not been
proved. It is more likely that the Grahams were of Norman French origin and
settled in the south of England at Grantham in Lincolnshire from which they
took their name. The name De Grantham was corrupted to De Graham and later
shortened to Graham. The Grahams moved to Scotland in the twelfth century,
where a William De Graham is recorded in 1127. Grahams were accepted as
Scottish following a marriage into the native Scottish family of Strathearn and
they made Auchterader their seat. Following the Union of England and Scotland
in the seventeenth century many troublesome border country Grahams were transported
to Ireland and were forbidden to return. There they were joined by hundreds of
other transported border tribesman including Eliots, Kerrs and Armstrongs.
Border
history may well have been dominated by the political struggle between England
and Scotland, but it would be wrong to assume that the story of the Borders was
always a saga of Englishman against Scot and vice versa. In Elizabethan times the Anglo-Scottish
Border counties, including Northumberland, were the home to the notorious
Border Reivers, the lawless clans of the border valleys, where a lifestyle of
raiding and marauding was the only way to survive. The life of the Border
Reiver was not necessarily ruled by his allegiance to the English or Scottish
Crowns, but more likely by his allegiance to a family surname.
Feuds were
often fought and raids were made, not in the name of England or Scotland, but
in the names of Armstrong, Robson, Charlton, Elliott or Dodd, or in the names
of other Border surnames, that are still common in the region today. Indeed it
was a common occurance for English families to side with Scottish families in
border feuds, especially as some of the reiver surnames, like Armstrong, Hall
and Graham were to be found on both sides of the border.
There is a
well known tradition that the Robsons of North Tynedale once made a foray into
the Scottish valley of Liddesdale and stole a large flock of sheep belonging to
the Graham family, which they brought back into Northumberland. Later it was
discovered that the Graham sheep were infected with scab, which spread like
wild fire through the Robson's flock. The Robsons were so angry that they
returned to Liddesdale in another raid, where they caught seven members of the
Graham family and hung them until they were dead. They left a note to the
effect that;
The neist
time gentlemen cam to tak their schepe They are no te' be scabbit!
Such tales
as this were typical of the border country many centuries ago, though it is not
always easy to separate the fact from the fiction, since these stories were
often constructed by people who may not have even visited the borderlands.
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