William was born in 1817, the 2nd son of William Graham and Katherine Swanston.
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Portrait taken in the 1860s |
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A painting by Daniel Gabriel Rossetti |
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A cartoon |
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A picture in the Illustrated London News by Thomas Dewell Scott 10th February 1866 |
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A painting by Edward Burne-Jones, 1880 |
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A posthumous picture of William by Thomas Rooke, 1902 |
He married Jane Catherine Lowndes on 1st January 1845 and their children were born in the following places:
- Alice Anne - East Indies (but a British subject)
- Florence Elizabeth - East Indies
- Rutherford James - East Indies
- Amy Margaret - Manchester, Prestwich
- Frances Jane - Manchester, Prestwich
- William - Scotland
- Lillias Catherine - Manchester (or Scotland)
- Agnes Loundes - Manchester, Prestwich
Frances, in her book "Time Remembered" (1933), describes them thus:
She also describes him:
He was a wealthy merchant who was a cotton manufacturer and wine importer. His father was the founder of the firms Lancefield Spinning Co and W & J Graham & Co. In 1810, W & J Graham & Co diversified its business interests when it began importing wines from Portugal. Graham's became one of Britain's most prominent port shippers.
Graham was a moderate Liberal, and was MP for Glasgow from 1865 to 1874 being first elected on 14 July 1865. He was then re-elected in 1868 in the party's great Glasgow triumph in the general election of 1868 when Glasgow's electoral representation was raised from two to three MPs.
In 1861, the family was living at Langley House‡, Prestwich and a directory of 1869 describes William as a merchant working at W. Graham & Co at 86 Major Street, Manchester.
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The site of Langley House in 1915 |
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The site of Langley House in 2011
Holyrood survives as allotments |
But, by 1871, they were living at 44 Grosvenor Place, Belgravia, London
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44 Grosvenor Place, SW1X 7EQ
Now redeveloped but . . . |
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. . . then, would have looked more like
15 Grosvenor Place and
overlooked Buckingham Palace garden |
As well as his houses in London and Manchester, he rented Stobhall (Perthshire, PH2 6DP) overlooking the Tay, and
 
Urrard House (Killiecrankie, Pitlochry, PH16 5LN) on the river Garry.
 
He also lived in Bombay for a while (his father had 'opened a house' there in 1839).
William died on 16-Jul-1885 in Guildford but is buried in Glasgow Cathedral burial ground (where his two sons are also buried).
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The grave marker at Glasgow Cathedral Necropolis |
JAMES RUTHERFORD
beloved son
of
WILLIAM and JANE
GRAHAM
died October 28 1872
aged
twenty three years |
In memory of
WILLIAM GRAHAM
who died July 16 1885
aged sixty eight years
and here lies buried
and of JANE CATHERINE his wife
who died July 1899
aged seventy nine years
and was buried at
Wells in the County of Somerset
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WILLIAM
beloved son
of
WILLIAM and JANE
GRAHAM
died September 16 1875
aged
seventeen years
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The following year (April 1886), there was a large sale of his paintings at Christies. Several members of the family bought many of them back to keep them in the family.
| ‡ | Langley House was built in 1860, at a cost of £10,000. It had been owned, amongst others, by Samuel Brewis whose widow, Rebecca Constantina Elizabeth, remarried in 1859. She died (d.s.p.) on 5th Feb 1862. In 1886, the house was owned by Henry Charles Fenwick Wilson who left £2,500 and a brewery business to his son.
The house was used as a hospital during the First World War.
On 16-Sep-1926, the house and estate (land, Langley Estate between Bury Old Road and Glebelands Road and dwelling house known as Langley House and buildings. A 16, R 0, P 10, Yds 0) were purchased from the Ecclesiastical Commission for England by the Prestwich UDC for housing. The house was demolished, new roads were built, and the estate covered with council houses - contracts for the first 50 houses were let in 1927. Allotments now cover the grounds known as Holyrood.
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From the Prestwich & Whitefield Guide (1926) |
The house at Popythorn (originally Pope's Thorn) dated back to the mid-16th century, and was part of the glebe lands of Prestwich Rectory.
Today, there are several roads: Langley Hall Road, Langley Grange, Langley Crescent, Langley Road, Langley Avenue, Langley Grove, Langley Gardens which indicate roughly where the house was.
Note: Amy was supposedly born in/near Manchester in 1852, Frances in 1855 and Lillias in 1857. If Langley House wasn't built until 1860, it follows that William and his family must have lived elsewhere in/near Manchester before 1860.
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End of Note.
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