In 1916 Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (RBCG), adventurer, politician and writer, donated a portrait of his wife Gabriella by John Lavery to Glasgow Museums.
Starting this research I rather assumed that following the surname of the donor back in time would present no more than the usual difficulties and similarly with his wife. However that that was not the case as Cunninghame Graham’s surname was not a consistent feature of his ancestry. Additionally his wife’s name was an assumed one, entirely different from her birth name.
RBCG’s great great great grandfather was Nicol Graham, the son of Robert Graham of Gartmore and his wife Isobel Buntine, who was the daughter of Nicol Buntine, laird of Ardoch. Unfortunately there are no primary sources that confirm this however I’m reasonably confident that this marriage is the source of the Bontine part of RBCG’s surname. Hopefully what follows will support that.
Nicol Graham married Margaret Cunninghame, eldest daughter of the Earl of Glencairn in 1732.[1] This marriage is the source of the Cunninghame element of RBCG’s surname. They had four sons; the eldest William, baptized in 1733, [2] the second, Robert, born circa 1735,[3] being RBCG’s great great grandfather. William, the heir presumptive to Gartmore, and Robert both matriculated at Glasgow University in 1749.[4]
In his entry in the matriculation records William is described as being an advocate in 1756, although I have been unable to find any evidence to support a law degree from Glasgow. In James Boswell’s London Journal 1762-1763, reprinted in the Penguin Classics series in 2010, it is recorded in the notes that he met William on the 18th June 1763 and again in Lausanne, Switzerland on the 21st December 1764, this latter encounter caused Boswell to comment that it pleased him to see that ‘an Advocate may be made a fine fellow’.[5] In 1767 William married Margaret Porterfield, the daughter of Dr. Porterfield of Edinburgh.[6]
In the meantime Robert had decided his fortunes lay in Jamaica, going there it seems in 1752 at the age of 17. His father had a cousin there who was Clerk of the Court in Kingston therefore it’s probable he was the catalyst for Robert leaving Scotland. As it happens the cousin’s name was Bontein, the relationship no doubt as a consequence of the marriage of Nicol Graham and Isobel Buntin.
By 1753 he was appointed Receiver-General of Taxes, deputed by Thomas Graham (a relative?), a previous holder of the office. In August of that year he wrote to his mother essentially seeking news from home, in particular asking after his sister Henrietta.[7] He suffered all the usual sicknesses that newcomers to the Caribbean colonies did, overcoming them due to the care of ‘very friendly ladys, the power of medicine and the strength of his constitution.’ He wrote two letters to his mother in 1757, the first telling her of his health problems, the second stating that he was again fit and well.[8]
As he gained experience in his tax role he became confidant enough to write to Sir Alexander Grant, a London Parliamentarian who previously had business interests in Jamaica and had advised the Board of Trade on West Indian commerce,[9] criticising the methods employed in the collection of taxes and stating that it was a hindrance to trade. His first personal commercial venture was to invest ‘a small sum’ in a privateer whose sole purpose seems to have been capturing French ships for prize money.[10]
His relatively peaceful existence however was severely disrupted by a slave revolt in 1760. The ringleader was Tacky an Obeah man who claimed occult powers that would protect the rebelling slaves. (Obeah can be broadly defined as anything used, or intended to be used by anyone pretending to be possessed of any occult or supernatural power.)[11]
As can no doubt be imagined the revolt was put down brutally and without mercy, any captured rebelling slave being dealt with by ‘Burning, Hanging and Gibetting.’ The slaves set up a negress called Cabeah as queen of Kingston with robes and a crown. In due course she was caught and executed. Tacky was shot and killed during a chase by an army lieutenant, with two other ringleaders Kingston and Fortune being up hung up in chains alive, Fortune taking seven days to die, Kingston nine days. He reported these events to his father in a very matter of fact way, as if he was describing how to cure belly aches and fevers.[12]
At the end of 1760 a law was passed outlawing Obeah to prevent further slave revolts. Another view of this might be that Act in reality was to protect the concept of the slavery of Africans and to deny the slave population’s African origins.[13]
Robert remained in Jamaica until 1770 continuing with his public duty as Receiver- General until 1764. In the following year he was elected to the National Assembly for the district of St. David’s remaining in that position until 1768.[14] He was also the owner of two sugar plantations on the island: Roaring River and Lucky Hill, his biographical notes in the Glasgow University Story website stating he owned fifty-one slaves of the latter plantation valued at £3,604.[15] In 2018 Stephen Mullen and Simon Newman wrote a report for Glasgow University, its theme being how the University benefited financially from slavery. In it Robert Graham features significantly, including reference to his fathering illegitimate children writing to a friend that he had ‘rather too great a latitude to a dissipated train of whoring, the consequence of which [is] I now dayly see before me a motley variegated race of different complexions’.[16]
In 1757 the Bontine estate of Ardoch was entailed to him by kinsman Nicol Bontine, the entail requiring him to assume the name of Bontine.[17] In 1764 on the death of Bontine he duly became the Laird of Ardoch.[18] Some sources say that Bontine’s death occurred around 1767-68 although I can find no primary source to confirm that.
In 1764 in Jamaica Robert Graham married Anne Taylor, daughter of Patrick Taylor and sister of Simon Taylor,[19] a wealthy merchant who owned several plantations and at the time of his death in 1813 owned 2228 slaves.[20]
Robert and Anne had six children two of whom were born in Jamaica, the others in Scotland. Their first was Margaret Jane who was born in Kingston in 1765 [21] and died the same year. 1766 saw the birth of their second, also Margaret,[22] who in due course travelled back to Scotland with them in 1770.[23] She was a beneficiary of her uncle Simon Taylor’s will in 1813 inheriting £10,000.[24]
Their Scottish born children were John, born and died in 1773, William Cunninghame, born in 1775 and RBCG’s great grandfather, Ann Susannah, born 1776, died 1778 and Nicol, born in 1778,[25] who became a soldier in the Austrian army rising to the rank of Maréchal de Camp.[26]
Robert and Anne on returning to Britain had initially lived in London for a short period but by late 1772 the family were living in Ardoch House,[27] his father Nicol and his elder brother William and family living at Gartmore.
William had been in poor health for some time and in 1774 had gone to Lisbon with his wife hoping that would help him. Unfortunately no improvement occurred and he died there later that year. As his three children were all girls that meant Robert was the next male heir of his father. When his father died in 1775 Robert became Laird of Gartmore in addition to Ardoch. [28] He and his family moved to Gartmore House sometime during 1776.[29]
From that time on he worked to improve his estates He also appears to have supported his brother’s widow financially and paying for their three girls education. In 1779 he took a house in Edinburgh to facilitate the education of his own children. Funds were also provided for the education of his illegitimate ‘offspring’ in Jamaica. In 1784 he became a burgess and guild brother of Edinburgh.[30]
Since his return to Scotland he had not engaged in any commercial activity however in 1778 he gave a Captain Stephenson £250 to help fit out a ship to be used in the Jamaica trade.[31]
Despite periods of ill health (gout) life at this point seemed to be very satisfactory, his interest in politics and literary matters growing, however that was to change with the death of his wife Anne circa 1781. Her cause of death has not been established however RBCG refers to periods of illness from when she settled in Scotland. He also from time to time refers to her as Robert’s creole wife however no significant evidence is produced in his book to support that.[32] Robert subsequently married Elizabeth Buchanan Hamilton circa 1786 which was short lived, ending by separation in 1789.[33]
His interests in politics and literary matters had been developing for some time. He became MP for Stirlingshire from 1794 to 1796 with a keen interest in political reform. He promoted a bill of rights during his tenure which although unsuccessful could be said to foreshadow the Reform Bill of 1832. Prior to that he had been rector of Glasgow University from 1785 to 1787.[34]
He also wrote poetry, his main claim to fame lying with his lyrical poem ‘If doughty deeds my lady please’. When it was written is not clear, probably sometime between 1780 and 1790, but it was included in Palgrave’s Golden Treasury of 1875 and in 1866 Arthur Sullivan put it to music and dedicated it to a Mrs. Scott Russell, the mother of Rachel Scott Russell with whom he had or hoped for, a romantic attachment, much to her mother’s displeasure.[35]
Thereafter Graham was known as ‘Doughty Deeds’, RBCG’s biography of him bearing that title.
In 1796 he inherited the estate of Finlaystone on the death of the last Earl of Glencairn, John Cunninghame, and assumed the name Cunninghame, thereafter known as Robert Cunninghame Graham. He died in 1797 at Gartmore, son William inheriting.[36]
At the age of twelve William matriculated at Glasgow University in 1787,[37] under the tutelage of family friend Professor William Richardson, who holidayed often at a cottage on the Gartmore estate.[38] Apparently destined to run the family estates rather than be involved in business or commerce he then went on to study French and German in Neuchatel in Switzerland from around 1790 until late 1793.[39]
He married twice, firstly to Anne Dickson in 1798 [40] and they had five children between 1799 and 1809, the first born being Robert Cunninghame his eventual heir and grandfather of RBCG. The others were: Anna (1802), William John (1803), Douglas (1805) and Charlotte Maria Elizabeth (1809).[41]
His second marriage, in 1816, was to Janet Bogle nee Hunter.[42] They had four children as follows: Thomas Dunlop Douglas (1817), Alexander Spiers (1818), Susan Jane (1820) and Margaret Matilda (1821).
Like his father he became involved in politics being MP for Dunbartonshire from June 1796 to May 1797, winning his seat by eleven votes to three, his father Robert being the other candidate. He apparently had committed to support the then government but subsequently ‘now found he was unable in conscience to do so,’ hence the short duration of his political career.[43]
If he really was destined to run the family estates then what he achieved was the exact opposite. He was a gambler, not a very good one as he lost a fortune, and ultimately a swindler. He was forced to leave the country in 1828 to avoid his creditors, having squandered the family art collection through his gambling plus compromising the financial stability of his estates. By 1832 he was living in Florence with his wife Janet and their two daughters.
He was something of a mechanical genius developing a machine with which he could very accurately make copies of rare and famous engravings, thereby earning a living by selling these copies. The machine however was in due course used to produce false letters of credit of the bank Glyn, Halifax, Mills and Co.
There were fourteen individuals involved the main instigator of the fraud being the Marquis de Bourbel. They initially obtained a genuine letter of credit from the bank, from a strong box which Cunninghame Graham’s stepson Allan George Bogle had control of, thus seeing the approval signatories required.[44] They were then able to procure the same paper used by the bank, create a number of letters of credit and then forge the bank signatures using Cunninghame Graham’s machine to ‘trace’ them on to the false documents. By this means the conspirators were able to defraud banks in Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere of £10,700 in six days. That sum today would, on RPI changes alone, be worth around £1million.[45]
However, as always seems to happen, greed overcame caution with one of the fraudsters being arrested on the Ostend ferry whilst trying to flee, the rest when learning of his fate scattered. An article in the Times newspaper goes into great detail with regards to the scheme with all the fourteen conspirators being named, including William, his son Alexander and his stepson Allan Bogle. None of the main players in the fraud appear to have suffered any adverse consequences with the exception being the Graham family. Allan Bogle sued the writer of the article which he claimed defamed him. He was eventually awarded one farthing damages and ordered to pay his own legal expenses. Alexander lived under an assumed name in France and died there within the year at the age of twenty three. William was banished from Tuscany, ending up in London where he died in 1845.[46]
He was succeeded by his son Robert Cunninghame Cunninghame Graham. He had married Frances Laura Speirs in 1824 in the parish of Port of Monteith,[47] she being the daughter of Archibald Speirs, son of tobacco lord Alexander Speirs and his wife Mary Buchanan. They had nine children between 1826 and 1844, born in a variety of places. His eldest son and heir William Cunninghame Bontine was born in Leamington, Warwickshire in 1825 as was brother Douglas Alexander in 1844. Four were born at the family estate of Finlaystone between 1826 and 1834, a son and a daughter were born in Edinburgh in 1838 and 1839 respectively, and one daughter was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1842.[48] In the 1851 census he is recorded as a visitor to the Speirs family in the parish of St. Ninians in the county of Stirling.[49]
Presumably the Finlaystone births over eight years are an indication of his involvement with the management of his estates, what he was doing in the other localities, in particular Germany, has not been established. He was Vice Lieutenant of the county of Dunbartonshire and Deputy Lieutenant of the counties of Renfrew and Stirling.
Robert died in 1863 at Castlenaw House, Mortlake, in Surrey, his son William being his sole executer. Also in 1863 his son William was forced to sell of the Finlaystone estate to pay off outstanding debt, presumably emanating from his grandfather’s gambling activities.[50] In the year of Robert’s death his personal estate was valued at £20,358,[51] however in 1879 a second confirmation took place which identified further inventory valued at £134,276. On this occasion there was a reference to William’s curator bonis, a legal representative who looks after an individual’s affairs because of some physical or mental incapacity. The reason for that will become clear in due course.[52]
William Cunninghame Bontine Graham was to spend most of his life in the military. Prior to that however he attended Trinity College, Cambridge in 1842. What he studied has not been established.[53] In 1845 he became an ensign in the 15th Regiment of Foot (Scots Greys) by purchase,[54] a year later becoming a Cornet in the same regiment, again by purchase.[55] At that time he was serving in Ireland remaining there for circa five years.[56]
He married Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone Fleeming, daughter of the late Admiral Sir Charles Elphinstone Fleeming, in June 1851.[57] They had three sons, the eldest being Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham (RBCG), born at Cadogan Place, London in 1852.[58] The second son was Charles Elphinstone Fleeming Cunningham Graham, who enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1873 at the age of nineteen. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1877 and served until 1888.[59] He was awarded the M.V.O. and in 1908 became Groom in Waiting to the King.[60] In 1910 he became Groom of the Bedchamber.[61] The youngest son Malise Archibald Cunninghame Grahame became a minister of religion dying aged twenty five in 1885.[62]
William’s final promotion came in 1855 when he was made a major in the Prince of Wales Renfrew Regiment of Militia.[63] He remained at that rank until 1862 when he resigned his commission.[64] In the following year he became Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Stirling on the death of his father.[65]
From the late 1850’s he began to suffer mental health issues. Whilst in Ireland with his regiment he had been attacked in Waterford and had suffered a severe head injury, letters written by his wife between 1857 and 1866 making reference to his problems and suggesting that they arose from this attack.[66] By 1876 it was of such concern that there was a legal notice in the Edinburgh Gazette requiring ‘in the Queen’s name’ the Lord President of the Court of Session to summon William to attend the Parliament House in Edinburgh to determine his sanity.[67] Clearly at some time after a curator bonis was appointed to look after his affairs hence the comment in the 1879 probate statement.
For the rest of his life William continued to have significant mental health problems. He died in 1883 at Eccles House in Penpont, Dumfriesshire, cause of death given as ‘Insanity – about 19 years.’ [68]
RBCG’s life by any measure became an incredible journey starting essentially as a cowboy, then general adventurer, a politician holding, for the time and considering his lineage, very socialist ideas, and a prolific writer.
His schooling began at Hillhouse in Leamington Spa from 1863 to 1865 followed by two years at Harrow. His education continued in London and Brussels before he went to the Argentine in 1869/70.[69]
Why the Argentine? The answer probably lies with his mother Anne Elizabeth who was half Spanish, her mother being Dona Catalina Paulina Alessandro de Jiminez who married Sir Charles in Cadiz in 1816. She was apparently aged 16, he was 42 years old. Another connection to South America may have been that RBCG’s mother had been born on board her father’s flagship HMS Barnham in 1828, whilst it was off-shore from Venezuela. At any rate he was brought up heavily influenced by his Spanish grandmother, speaking Spanish fluently from a very early age, and in general having, for the time, an unconventional upbringing.
One other, perhaps more pressing reason, was that his father’s illness had resulted in significant debts for the family, hence, as the eldest son, he would feel an obligation to deal with those debts. It was during this time in the Argentine where he rode with gauchos, dealt in cattle and horses, for which he had an abiding passion, that he became known as Don Roberto. Unfortunately whatever he did in South America had no effect on the debt situation at home and only served to create debt of his own.[70] One clear benefit however was his experiences there were the basis of a number stories he wrote in later life detailing the turbulent every-day life with the gauchos and the physical expansiveness of their country. He returned to Britain around 1877 however he was to go back to South America in later life on a number of occasions, one specific stay was in Uruguay where he purchased horses for the British army during World War I.
He lived in Paris for a while which is where he met his future wife Gabriela de la Balmondiere, apparently half French, half Chilean, marrying her there around 1878. However that was an entirely assumed name, more of which later.
His political career began in the General Election of 1885 when he stood as a Liberal candidate in North-West Lanarkshire. He lost to his Conservative opponent John Baird by over a thousand votes. In July of the following year, again as a Liberal, he stood against the same opponent and won by 332 votes. However he clearly identified as a radical socialist throughout his political career being described as the first socialist elected to parliament. He condemned a whole series of injustices of the society of the day. He was anti-imperialism, anti-racism, against child labour and was for abolishing the House of Lords.. He was also vigorously against the profiteering he saw in property and industry which was to the detriment of the people making the profit, that is, the workforce. Considering his ancestry and family background these were astonishing views to have held but by all accounts not out of character.[71]
His maiden speech in the House of Commons included the following words:
‘ the society in which one man works and enjoys the fruit – the society in which capital and luxury make Heaven for thirty thousand and a Hell for thirty million, that society…. with its want and destitution, its degradation, its prostitution and its glaring social inequalities – the society we call London….’
In 1887 the threat of disorder was such that demonstrations were forbidden. That did not stop a rally in Trafalgar Square against unemployment which ended in a riot. Among the leaders of the rally were RBCG and fellow socialist John Burns. Police and the army were in attendance which resulted in violence with over seventy people seriously injured and over four hundred arrests. RBCG and Burns were both severely beaten, arrested and eventually each sentenced to six weeks in Pentonville jail.[72]
Throughout his time in Parliament (until 1892) he continued to espouse his socialist views clearly and emphatically. On one occasion at the end of his speech he said:
‘To sum up the position briefly. Failure of civilisation to humanise; failure of commercialism to procure a subsistence; failure of religion to console; failure of our parliament to intervene; failure of individual effort to help; failure of our whole social system.’
This led to his expulsion from the House of Commons.[73]
Around 1888 he left the Liberal party and along with Keir Hardy formed the Scottish Labour party, RBCG becoming its first president, Hardy its first secretary general. In 1892 they both stood for election as party candidates, Hardy was successful in West Ham, London however RBCG lost in the Camlachie constituency in Glasgow, thus ending his parliamentary career.
That set back did not change his political views, which even led him to criticise Labour MPs for not presenting a radical challenge to the government. He had always advocated home rule for Scotland becoming president of the Scottish Home Rule Association and in 1928 president of the newly formed National Party of Scotland. Six years later the Scottish National Party was created when the National Party joined with the Scottish Party, RBCG being appointed president of the new organisation.[74]
Being freed of his formal involvement with politics allowed him and his wife to travel more often. He also wrote prolifically about his travels, his politics and his concerns about the disappearance of local cultures and ways of life he had experienced in his travels. He had a large number of friends and acquaintances from all walks of life, including Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, artist John Lavery who painted portraits of him and his wife, Whistler, Epstein and Augustus John. From his early visits to South America his writings refer to gauchos he befriended in particular Exaltacion Medina and Raimundo Barragan. He had also become friendly with the author Joseph Conrad from about 1897 with the writer in a letter to RBCG commenting on his wide experiences and the people he had met by saying:
‘What don’t you know? From the outside of a sail to the inside of a prison!’
In 1900 due to the level of debt, including death duties, he was forced to sell his Gartmore estate to Sir Charles Cayzer, a cause of great disappointment and sorrow to him.[75]
More was to follow with the death of his wife in 1906 in France. Her true name was Carrie or Caroline Horsefall born in 1858 to a Yorkshire surgeon. Why she chose her assumed name is not clear however it seems she was rebelling against her strict upbringing and took herself to Paris which may have been the reason. Another, perhaps the more plausible, is that she assumed her chosen name on her marriage to RBCG to be more acceptable to his social circle. Presumably close family members knew of the deception but that is not clear.
She was an accomplished writer contributing to The Yellow Book and writing, amongst others a life of St Teresa of Avila, had artistic and musical skills, and wrote poetry.[76]
She died on the 8th September at Hendaye in France, her name registered as Gabriela Chideock (where did that come from?) Cunninghame Grahame.[77] As she had wished she was interred in the Inchmahome Priory on the Lake of Menteith.[78]
RBCG’s writings covered over thirty books which included 200 short stories and sketches. He also wrote ‘Doughty Deeds’ a history of his great great grandfather Robert Cunninghame Graham. As may be expected during his life-time he had a very good reputation as a writer, his writings often being full of exotic individuals and adventure in faraway places. That has not fared very well since his death. A number of his stories also indicated the sadness he felt about the changes that occurred in some of the places he had visited such as the Pampas. His political reputation was also well established, particularly in the labour and Scottish Independence movements although with his privileged background it may have seemed strange but welcome to some and perhaps traitorous, to his class, to others. Again as for his writings his political activity is not well remembered today.
He had one other passion and that was horses. He owned several throughout his life but his favourite was Pampa, an Argentinian stallion he saw pulling a tram-car in Glasgow. He bought it from the tram company and rode it at every opportunity until it died in 1911.
When he went to buy horses for the British Army in Uruguay during the Great War he had two opposing emotions. He was happy to be riding again in the Pampas, but was saddened to think of their likely fate in Flanders. He wrote a book about his experience in Uruguay entitled ‘Bopicua’. The book ends with the words, to the horses, ‘eat well there is no grass like that of La Pileta , to where you go across the sea. The grass in Europe all must smell of blood’.[79]
His made one last trip to Argentina in 1936, dying there in the Plaza Hotel in Buenos Aries on the 20 March. He lay in state in the Casa del Teatro his strong affinity with the country being recognised by the attendance of the Argentinian President at his funeral. His body was subsequently returned home and buried beside his wife in the Inchmahome Priory.[80] The last of the family estates, Ardoch, was inherited by his brother Charles’ son Angus.[81]
[1] Marriages. (OPR) Scotland. Edinburgh. 23 April 1732. GRAHAME, Nicol and CUNNINGHAME, Margaret. 685/1 470 74. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[2] Births. (OPR) Scotland. Kilmacolm, Renfrew. 9 March 1733. GRAHAM, William. 569/ 10 60. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[3] Find a Grave. Robert Cunninghame Graham. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/215228097/robert-cunninghame-graham
[4] Addison, W. Innes. (1913). The Matriculation Albums of Glasgow University, from 1728 to 1858. Glasgow: James Maclehose and Sons. p. 40. https://archive.org/details/matriculationalb00univuoft/page/40/mode/2up?view=theater
[5] Turnbull, Gordon, ed. (2010) London Journal 1762-1763. London: Penguin Classics. https://books.google.co.uk/books
[6] Marriages. (OPR) Scotland. Port of Monteith. 26 March 1767. GRAHAM, William and PORTERFIELD, Margaret. 388/ 10 475. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[7] Graham, R. B. Cunninghame. (1925). Doughty Deeds. London: William Heinemann Ltd. pp. 19-22. https://archive.org/details/doughtydeeds
[8] Graham, op.cit. pp. 26,27.
[9] The History of Parliament. Grant, Sir Alexander, 5th Bt. (1772) of Dalvey, Elgin. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1754-1790/member/grant-sir-alexander-1772
[10] Graham, op.cit. pp. 28,29.
[11] History Workshop. The Racist History of Jamaica’s Obeah Laws. (Diana Paton) https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/the-racist-history-of-jamaicas-obeah-laws
[12] Graham, op.cit. pp. 31-33.
[13] History Workshop. The Racist History of Jamaica’s Obeah Laws. (Diana Paton) https://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/the-racist-history-of-jamaicas-obeah-laws
[14] Graham, op.cit. pp. 39, 44, 63.
[15] University of Glasgow. The University of Glasgow Story – Robert Graham. https://www.universitystory.gla.ac.uk/biography/?id=WH0240&type=P
[16] University of Glasgow. Slavery, Abolition and the University of Glasgow, report, and recommendations of the
University of Glasgow History of Slavery Steering Committee. https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_607547_smxx.pdf
[17] Shaw, Samuel (1784). An Accurate Alphabetical Index of the Registered Entails in Scotland. Edinburgh. p. 14. https://books.google.co.uk/books AND Graham, op.cit. p. 76.
[18] Grant, Francis J., ed. (1898). The Commissariot Record of Hamilton and Campsie. Register of Testaments 1564-1800. 24 October 1764. BUNTEN, Nicol of Ardoch. p.13. https://archive.org/details/scottishrecordso05scotuoft/page/n1/mode/2up?view=theater
[20] Petley, Christer. ‘Simon Taylor (1739-1813)’. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/104876
[21] Baptisms. Jamaica. Kingston. 1765. GRAHAM, Margaret Jane . FHL Film Number1291763, page 178. https://www.ancestry.co.uk
[22] Baptisms. Jamaica. Kingston. 1766. GRAHAM, Margaret. FHL Film Number1291763, page 186. https://www.ancestry.co.uk
[23] Graham, op.cit. p. 85.
[24] University College London. Simon Taylor. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146634174
[25] Births (OPR) Scotland. Cardross. 7 April 1778. GRAHAM, Nicol. 494/ 10 180. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[26] Graham, op.cit. p. 155 note.
[27] Graham, op.cit. p. 111.
[28]Testamentary Records Scotland. 25 December 1775. GRAHAM, Nicol. TT. Dunblane Commissary Court. CC6/5/28. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[29] Graham, op.cit. p.113.
[30] Watson, Charles R. Boog (ed). Roll of the Burgesses and Guild Brethren of Edinburgh 1761-1841. Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society. p. 68. https://archive.org/details/scottishrecordso53scotuoft/page/68/mode/2up
[31] Graham, op.cit. pp.111-124.
[32] Graham, op.cit. pp.125,126.
[33] Walker, John. ‘Robert Graham (later Cunninghame Graham) (1735-1797). In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/11220
[34] Ibid.
[35] Gilbert and Sullivan Archive. ‘If Doughty Deeds’. https://www.gsarchive.net/sullivan/songs/doughty/deeds.html
[36] Graham, op.cit. p.164.
[37] Addison, W. Innes, op. cit. p. 150.
[39] Graham, op.cit. pp.156-158.
[40] the peerage.com. William Cunninghame Cunninghame Graham. https://www.thepeerage.com/p18700.htm#i187000
[41] Births (OPR) Scotland. Port of Menteith. 14 September 1799. GRAHAM, Robert + Anna + William John + Douglas + Charlotte Maria Elizabeth. 388/ 10 385. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[42] the peerage.com. William Cunninghame Cunninghame Graham. https://www.thepeerage.com/p18700.htm#i187000
[43] The History of Parliament. Dunbartonshire. https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1790-1820/constituencies/dunbartonshire
[44] WRBCG. Ancestral Tales – Bad Willie’s Crime. https://cunninghamegrahamblog.wordpress.com/tag/william-cunningham-cunninghame-graham-of-gartmore-finlaystone/ AND The Times. Extraordinary and Extensive Forgery and Swindling Conspiracy on the Continent. The Times. 26 May 1840 p.6. https://www.nls.uk/
[45] Measuring Worth (2022) https://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ukcompare/
[46] WRBCG. Ancestral Tales – Bad Willie’s Crime. https://cunninghamegrahamblog.wordpress.com/tag/william-cunningham-cunninghame-graham-of-gartmore-finlaystone/ AND The Times. Extraordinary and Extensive Forgery and Swindling Conspiracy on the Continent. The Times. 26 May 1840 p.6. https://www.nls.uk/
[47] Marriages (OPR) Scotland. Port of Monteith 20 June 1824. BUNTIN, Robert Cunninghame and SPEIRS, Frances Laura. 388/ 20 120. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[48] Births (OPR) Scotland. 1826 to 1844. GRAHAM. 388/ 20 83 and 388/ 20 84. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[49] Censuswww.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
[50] Finlaystone Country Estate. The Cunninghame Grahams. https://www.finlaystone.co.uk/about/finlaystone-house/the-cunninghame-grahams/
[51] Testamentary Records Scotland. 18 April 1863. GRAHAM, Robert Cunninghame Cunninghame. TT. Dunblane Sheriff Court. CC44/44/15. www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
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[53] Cambridge University Alumni 1261-1900. William Cunninghame Graham or Bontine. https://www.ancestry.co.uk
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[57] Marriage Announcements. (1851) Morning Post London. 14 June. BONTINE, William Cunninghame and Fleeming, Anne Elizabeth Elphinstone. p. 8. https://www.nls.uk/
[58] Watts, Cedric. ‘Graham, Robert Bontine Cunninghame (1852-1936)’ In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/33504
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[68] Deaths (SR) Scotland. Penpont, Dumfries. 6 September 1883. CUNNINGHAME Graham, William. 845/ 18. https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk
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[76] Meacock, Joe. The true Identities of Mrs R.B. Cunninghame Grahame https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV0HK23yD3A
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