Author: Grahame, James
Biography:
Grahame, James (1765-1811: ODNB as GRAHAM)
The son of Thomas Grahame, a lawyer, and Jean (Robertson) Grahame, he was born at Glasgow and educated at Glasgow Grammar School and Glasgow University. After being apprenticed to his lawyer cousin, Laurence Hill, he became a Writer to the Signet (Scottish solicitor); following his father’s 1791 death, he qualified as an advocate but enjoyed only limited success in that role. He married Janet Graham in 1802 and they had two sons and a daughter. Although Grahame’s The Sabbath was admired by Scott and led to a correspondence between the two men, it also made him one of Byron’s satiric targets in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. In 1809 he went to London to realise his early ambition of becoming a clergyman; he was ordained and served as curate in churches first in Gloucestershire and then in Co. Durham. Ill-health forced his retirement and he travelled to his brother’s house in Glasgow where he died. He is buried in Glasgow Cathedral. Kenneth Grahame was his great grandnephew. (ODNB 2 Feb. 2019)