Grahame, James

(1765-1811)

   Born in Glasgow, the son of a lawyer, he studied at Glasgow University, then trained as a lawyer and was called to the Scottish bar in 1795. He fulfilled his life-long ambition when he was ordained in the Church of England in 1809. He suffered from ill health for years and died in Scotland, leaving a widow with two sons and a daughter. His greatgrand-nephew was Kenneth Grahame (see entry). Some of his publications: Poems in English, Scotch and Latin, 1794. Wallace: A Tragedy, 1799. Mary Stewart, Queen of Scots, 1801. The Sabbath: A Poem, 1804. The Birds of Scotland, 1806. Thoughts on Trial by Jury in Civil Causes, 1806. Poems, 1807 (2 volumes). The Siege of Copenhagen, 1808. Africa Delivered, 1809. British Georgics, 1809 (2nd edition, 1812). Poems on the abolition of the slave trade, 1809 (written with James Montgomery and E. Benger). Some of his other poems: "Biblical Pictures," "June," "Sunday Morning," "The Birds of Scotland," "The Cottars Lament," "The Rural Calendar," "The Thanksgiving Off Cape Trafalgar," "To a Redbreast."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Island 8 -Translations of Burns (http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/britlit/burns/burns8.html). Oldpoetry (www.oldpoetry.com). The Penguin Book of Bird Poetry. Peggy Munsterberg, ed. 1984. The Poetical Works of Henry Kirke White and James Grahame. Nichol, 1856. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).