James Graham (speaker)

Graham was born in Midlothian, Scotland in about 1650 and was the son of John Graham and Isabella (née Affick) Graham. His paternal grandfather was Scottish nobleman James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, who supported King Charles I in the English Civil War,{{cite web |title=James Graham |url=http://www.nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/luminaries-legal-figures/graham-james.html |website=www.nycourts.gov |publisher=Historical Society of the New York Courts |accessdate=25 September 2018}} and was executed in Scotland in May 1650 after which the Montrose estates were forfeited.Buchan, John (1928). Montrose: A History. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin: The Riverside Press. His father's older brother, James Graham, 2nd Marquess of Montrose, succeeded to the title after his grandfather's death.

In 1678, as a member of the entourage of Governor Edmund Andros (who was appointed by the Duke of York to be the first proprietary governor of the Province of New York in October 1674), Graham sailed to New York aboard the Blossom. Once in British America, he became a merchant and practiced law. He was granted patents to large tracts of land in Ulster County, Staten Island, and New Jersey.

From its inception in 1683, until {{Circa|1689}}, Graham served as the first recorder of New York City, essentially the deputy mayor of New York City (under mayors Cornelius Van Steenwyk, Gabriel Minvielle, Nicholas Bayard, Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Peter Delanoy).

On December 10, 1685, while serving as Recorder, Graham was appointed the Attorney General of the Province of New York to succeed Thomas Rudyard.{{cite book |last1=Denton |first1=Daniel |title=A Brief Description of New York |date=2009 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=9781429022217 |page=69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jRyJuLBe-uoC&pg=PA69 |accessdate=30 October 2019 |language=en}} In 1687, he was appointed to the Governor's Council under Governor Thomas Dongan, 2nd Earl of Limerick. In 1688 when New York was annexed into Dominion of New England, he moved to Boston and became the Attorney General of the Dominion. Following its collapse in April 1689, he was imprisoned along with Governor Andros and was exiled to England.

In 1691, Graham returned to New York after the Leisler Rebellion was put down by Governor Henry Sloughter, and was elected as a member of the New York General Assembly (the first representative governing body in New York),{{cite book |last1=Hutchins |first1=Stephen C. |title=Civil List and Constitutional History of the Colony and State of New York |date=1884 |publisher=Weed, Parsons & Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/civillistandcon00unkngoog/page/n349 305] |url=https://archive.org/details/civillistandcon00unkngoog |accessdate=25 September 2018 |language=en}} representing New York County (the current New York County, Manhattan), from 1691 to 1693 and again from 1695 until his death in 1701.{{cite book |last1=Hough, A.M., M.D. |first1=Franklin B. |title=The New York Civil List: Containing The Names And Origin Of The Civil Divisions, And The Names And Dates Of Election Or Appointment Of The Principal State And County Officers From The Revolution To The Present Time |date=1858 |publisher=Weed, Parsons and Co. |location=Albany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E3sFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA106 |accessdate=19 September 2018 |language=en}} From 1691 to 1694 and again from 1695 to 1698, he served as the Speaker of the Assembly.{{cite book |last1=Murlin |first1=Edgar L. |title=The New York Red Book |date=1908 |publisher=J. B. Lyon Company |pages=356–365 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r300AQAAMAAJ&pg=PA360 |accessdate=22 September 2018 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Eager |first1=Samuel Watkins |title=An Outline History of Orange County: Together with Local Tradition and Short Biographical Sketches of Early Settlers, Etc |date=1846 |publisher=T. E. Henderson |page=372 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ivopAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA372 |accessdate=24 September 2018 |language=en}}

In April 1691, Thomas Newton, then the Attorney General of the Province, left New York and George Farewell was appointed to succeed him but the General Assembly considered Farewell incompetent and, in May 1691, Graham was again appointed Attorney General, which he held until January 1701. In 1696, he was appointed Advocate General of the Court of Vice-Admiralty and in May 1699, he was again appointed to the Governor's Council under Governor Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont.

He was appointed to serve as Recorder again in 1693 and served (under mayors Charles Lodwik, William Merritt, Johannes de Peyster, David Provost, and Isaac De Riemer) until 1700 when he "lost favor" with Governor Bellomont and was replaced in January 1701 by Abraham Gouverneur.{{cite book |last1=Council |first1=New York (N Y. ) Common |title=Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1675-1776 |date=1905 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co. |page=[https://archive.org/details/minutesofcommon02newy/page/119 119] |url=https://archive.org/details/minutesofcommon02newy |accessdate=24 September 2018 |language=en}}

Graham was first married to Mary Home. Together, they were the parents of:{{cite book |last1=Huntting |first1=Isaac |title=History of Little Nine Partners: Of North East Precinct, and Pine Plains, New York, Duchess County |date=1897 |publisher=Charles Walsh & Company, printers |pages=342–350 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hJwvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA345 |accessdate=25 September 2018 |language=en}}

• Isabella Graham (1673–1752), who married Gov. Lewis Morris (1671–1746) on November 3, 1691.
• Mary Graham (b. {{Circa|1675}}), who married John Corbett on December 14, 1703.
• Sarah Graham (b. {{Circa|1677}}), who married Mr. Chappel, emigrated to England and was the mother of Rev. Graham Chappen, a clergyman in Nottinghamshire.
• Margaret Graham (b. {{Circa|1679}})
• John Graham (b. {{Circa|1681}})

After Mary's death, Graham was married for a second time to Elizabeth Windebank (1655–1701) on July 18, 1684.{{cite book |last1=Senate |first1=New York (State) Legislature |title=Documents of the Senate of the State of New York |date=1901 |publisher=E. Croswell |page=22 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_RBAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA2-PA22 |accessdate=25 September 2018 |language=en}} Together, they were the parents of:

• Augustine Graham (d. 1718), who married Jane Chiswell on April 8, 1703. He served as Surveyor General (from 1691 to 1719) and was a patentee in the Great and Little Nine Partner grants in Dutchess County.{{cite book |last1=National Society of the Colonial Dames in the State of New York |title=Register of the Colonial Dames of the State of New York |date=1913 |publisher=Colonial Dames of the State of New York |page=315 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wl5IAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA315 |accessdate=25 September 2018 |language=en}}

Graham died at his daughters residence, Morrisania, on January 27, 1701.

Through his son Augustine, he was the grandfather of James Graham,{{cite book |title=William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine |date=1909 |publisher=College of William & Mary |page=304 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1O8xAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA304 |accessdate=25 September 2018 |language=en}} who married his cousin (and James's granddaughter) Arabella Morris in 1738.{{cite book |last1=Bergen |first1=Tunis Garret |title=Genealogies of the State of New York: A Record of the Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding of a Nation |date=1915 |publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company |page=220 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=j-kpAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA220 |accessdate=25 September 2018 |language=en}} Through his daughter Isabella, he was the grandfather of twelve, including fellow Speaker Lewis Morris Jr. and New Jersey Chief Justice Robert Hunter Morris.{{cite web |title=Lewis Morris, Judge and Chief Judge of NY Supreme Court of Judicature, 1715-1733 |url=http://www.nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/legal-history-eras-01/history-era-01-morris.html |website=www.nycourts.gov |publisher=Historical Society of the New York Courts |accessdate=25 September 2018 |language=en}}

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• [http://www.nycourts.gov/history/legal-history-new-york/luminaries-legal-figures/graham-james.html James Graham] at the Historical Society of the New York Courts.

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Category:1650s births

Category:1701 deaths

Category:Speakers of the New York General Assembly

Category:Members of the New York General Assembly

Category:New York City recorders

Category:People from colonial New York

Category:People from Midlothian

Category:Scottish emigrants to the Thirteen Colonies