James Grahame

James Grahame was born on 22nd April 1765 at Whitehill House in Glasgow, the son of a lawyer.

After finishing his education at Glasgow University he moved, in 1784, to Edinburgh. Here he worked as a legal clerk before being called to the Scottish bar in 1795.

The career he really wanted was to join the clergy, a feat he only managed when he took Anglican orders at the age of 44 and became the curate first at Shipton, Gloucestershire, and then at Sedgefield, Durham.

Grahame was also a very fine poet, his best known perhaps being ‘The Sabbath’ which combines sacred and devotional verse with beautiful descriptions of the Scottish scenery.

His other works include the dramatic poem, ‘Mary Queen of Scots’ (1801), ‘British Georgics’ (1804), ‘The Birds of Scotland’ (1806), and ‘Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade’ in a volume he wrote with Elizabeth Benger and James Montgomery (1809)

Suffering from oppressive asthma and violent headaches, he travelled, for a change of air, to Glasgow. Two days later on 14th September 1811 the Rev. James Grahame died at Whitehill House, Glasgow.

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