Clan Graham

Well, I said I would try to write more than I did last month and things just keep preventing me (mostly myself!) I've been working on too many things, and I was not home all weekend, so it builds up after a while. However, today I am going to tell you about the Clan Graham.

Whenever there was a battle to be fought for the good of Scotland, you could find a Graham there. Sir John Graham who fought with Wallace, James Graham the Great Marquis of Montrose and his descendent, John Graham known as Bonnie Dundee. They were fearfully loyal, would fight to the death as many of them did, and would never give Scotland up to tyranny.

The Grahams actually came from Norman stock like the Bruces, and the first Graham in Scotland was Sir William de Graham. The names derives from Grantham in Lincolnshire. Sir William de Graham accompinied David I on his way to claim the Scottish crown and also witnessed the charter founding the Abbey of Holyrood in 1128. His line of Grahams were that of Montrose. Those who have always fought for the king.

Tha Grahams took no part in the Jacobite troubles of '45 however, but James Graham 3rd Duke of Montrose pleaded with parliament to repeal the Disarming Act; the law that forbid the Highlanders to wear their tartan.

The Graham's badge shows a falcon Proper killing a stork Argent. For those of you who do not know heraldry, you can see a picture of it here as well as other information regarding Clan Graham. The clan motto is Ne Oublie. It's French, likely something from Sir William being a Norman, and means "Do not Forget". This was also the Graham's war-cry when going into battle.

The clan plant badge is the spurge-laurel, I couldn't find a picture of that, but I'm sure you can look it up. The Graham tartan, as registered in the Vestiarium Scoticum is a green tartan with black plaid stripes. A very simple tartan by comparison to others.

The Chief of Clan Graham is known in the Gaelic as An Greumach Mor or The Great Graham. The Chief resides at Buchanan Castle now, though in the old days, he lived in Mugdock. However, most of them owed several different places. Montrose did for example.

I will promise to at least be back next week to tell about some famous Grahams. If you think of any famous Grahams would would like to know more about, please let me know and I will do my best!

Slainte, Hazel

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Gallant Grahams

Well, I apologize for the not very epic petering out of the MacGregor month. That's what you're just going to get when I'm writing! ;-) But I did a lot of Rob Roy last year, so if you want to read about the most famous MacGregor, look back to some of my earlier posts.

This month, however (and I will try to write a bit more this time) I am going to focus on Clan Graham. Right now I am reading Nigel Tranter's amazing novels on James Graham, the first Marquis of Montrose and I wanted to share a little bit of his story with everyone, so I decided to do a Graham month. We will also be talking about the many John Grahams and how they turned the tide at many battles. (I will also try to tell you a good way to keep them strait!)

The next post, I will write a little of quick information about the clan itself. If you have any questions or comments, are from Clan Graham or you want to know about a particular Graham, just let me know, and I will do my best!

Slainte, Hazel

The Royal Race

This month is the first month that I will be giving a clan the center stage. For February, we have the MacGregors!

Last year, I talked a lot about Rob Roy in February in honor of his birthday, but this year, I decided to honor his whole clan. So we are going to be talking a little bit about the history of Clan MacGregor and some of the famous men and woman (besides Rob) and at the end, I will give you a list of research books and novels that you can enjoy for further research.

Today, I am going to introduce their clan. The motto of Clan MacGregor is: S Rioghal Mo Dhream which means "Royal is my Race". From Gaelic though, it actually translates as "My Blood is Royal, but that's pretty much the same thing. You may be wondering about that because the Stuarts are the traditional royal family of Scotland, but the MacGregors can tie their lines way back to Kenneth MacAlpin. (For those of you reading Magnusson, that was chapter three) Their plant badge is the Scots Pine which they would stick in their bonnets to tell what clan they were from before clan tartans came into being. Here's a link to a site that will show you pictures of the arms and plant badge of the MacGregors.

That's all I'm going to talk about today, but I will be back later to talk a little bit about the history of the MacGregor clan!

Slainte, Hazel