FINTRY

(BALARGUS, POTENTO, CLAVERHOUSE, DUNTRUNE)

Sir Robert Graham, 1^st Baron of Fintry, was the eldest son of the second marriage of Sir William de Graham to the Princess Mary, daughter of King Robert III. His younger brother was William Graham of Garvock. Robert acquired the lands of Fintry in Stirlingshire, and also certain lands in Angus with which he and his successors became identified, and, when, in the seventeenth century, the lands of Fintry were sold to the chief of the Grahams, the 2^nd Marquess of Montrose, the lands in Angus came to be known as Fintry.

The second laird of Fintry married Elizabeth, daughter of the Earl of Douglas. Miss Graeme of Inchbrakie, in her exhaustive book on the Grahams, called Or and Sable, mentioned a contract of marriage where it is set forth that "Robert of Fintrie has to wife Elizabeth of Douglas, or failing her Margaret, whom failing Pelys, whom failing Elysson," and that should Robert predecease the marriage then David, his brother germane, should marry whichever of the four sisters was "most expedient" Expediency did not have to be resorted to! Sir David, 6^th of Fintry, was implicated in a mysterious Popish Plot to restore Roman Catholicism to Scotland, known to history as "The Spanish Blanks". Many were found to be involved when the plot was discovered, but the laird of Fintry was the only leader to be beheaded in 1592. His son, also Sir David, was a devoted follower of his chief, Montrose, during the Troubles. Robert, the 12^th Laird, was the last of the line to hold lands in Scotland, and it was a condition of the sale of the lands in Angus, towards the end of the eighteenth century, that the purchasers were not to use the style "of Fintry" The Grahams of Fintry later settled in South Africa, where the town of Grahamstown bears their name, and where many of them continue to this day.

Of all the Fintry stock, the most famous was John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee. He was seventh in descent from John, son of Robert 2^nd of Fintry. His predecessors had acquired the lands of Ballargus in Angus about 1481 and those of Claverhouse, near Dundee, about twenty years later. John Graham was born in 1648, eldest son of William Graham of Claverhouse and Lady Magdalene Carnegie, daughter of John, Earl of Ethie, afterwards Earl of Northesk.

After finishing his education at St. Andrews University, he entered foreign service, first as a volunteer in France, later in Holland, where he served under William, Prince of Orange. Having gained experience, he returned to Britain where, by the interest of James, Duke of York (King Charles II's brother, later James II), he obtained command of an independent troop of horse, and was employed in policing the south-western counties of Scotland, where the Covenanting population was practically in open rebellion against the government of King Charles.

Very briefly, the trouble arose when Charles II re-imposed Episcopacy upon Scotland after his Restoration. The country took it in different ways: the Highlands were more or less indifferent; Central Scotland resented it, talked, but did nothing; but the south-west counties, particularly Ayrshire and Galloway, rebelled and defied the government. Religious meetings of the Covenanters called conventicles, which were generally held in the open and at which many of the men were armed, were looked upon as particularly odious and dangerous by the authorities, and it was while employed on the duty of stamping out conventicles, dispersing the congregations, and apprehending the ringleaders, that Claverhouse incurred the unmitigated hatred of the Covenanters [Editor’s Note: It was for his handling of these events that earned the odious title “Bloody Claverhouse” or “Bluidy Clavers”]. He acted with thoroughness and on occasions with harshness, but it is questionable whether he ever exceeded his orders. On one occasion, at Drumclog, in 1679, he was defeated when he tried to disperse a conventicle, but a few weeks later he was present at the Battle of Bothwell Brig where the King's forces defeated the Covenanters. Strangely enough, Claverhouse married in 1684 Jean, daughter of Lord Cochrane (eldest son of the Earl of Dundonald), a notorious Covenanter. In spite of the machinations of his enemies who found this marriage a useful weapon against him and tried to turn it to their advantage, he continued to rise in the Royal favour, and when King Charles II died in 1685 and was succeeded by Claverhouse's patron, James, Duke of York, as James II, he had further advancement, being promoted Major-General in 1686. In 1688 William of Orange landed in England with the intention of wresting the throne from King James. Claverhouse took part in the brief and inglorious campaign, and a month before the King fled to France he created him Viscount of Dundee.

Dundee was one of the few men of action in Britain who remained unswervingly loyal to King James, and he, assisted by a handful of friends, emulated his great kinsman, Montrose, by retiring to the Highlands and raising an army in the King's name to oppose the forces of William of Orange who had been proclaimed and accepted by the vast majority of the people as William III. The story of Dundee's short but brilliant campaign is well known. In the only large-scale engagement of the rising he lured his enemy through the pass of Killiecrankie, and inflicted a crushing defeat upon a superior force. Dundee was killed in the very hour of victory. With his death the rising petered out under the inept leadership of General Cannon, his successor.

It is inevitable that the careers and accomplishments of the two most notable Grahams should be compared. Both men embarked in support of waning, if not lost causes. Both men imbued by intense loyalty to their sovereign sacrificed their homes and their lives. Both men took their chosen course against the most fearful odds, and by their personal magnetism were capable of raising, leading, and inspiring the Highland clans. Montrose, though he suffered death and ignominy at the hands of his opponents, never earned the hatred and abuse of Covenanting historians to the same extent as Dundee. Indeed, Montrose, in the course of time, has become a national hero, the beau ideal of chivalry and loyalty. Dundee, killed in the hour of victory, has, probably undeservedly, come down as "Bloody Clavers".

From: Johnston’s Clan Histories – The Grahams. By John Stewart of Ardvorlich. Edinburgh, 1958.