James Graham

James Graham (1650 – January 27, 1701) was a Scottish born colonial American politician who served as the Speaker of the New York General Assembly. Early life Graham was born in Midlothian, Scotland in 1650 and was the son of John Graham and Isabella (née Affick) Graham. His paternal grandfather was Scottish nobleman James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, who supported King Charles I in the English Civil War, and was executed in Scotland in May 1650 after which the Montrose estates were forfeited. His father's older brother, James Graham, 2nd Marquess of Montrose, succeeded to the title after his grandfather's death. Career In 1678, as a member of the entourage of Governor Edmund Andros (who was appointed by the Duke of York to be the first proprietary governor of the Province of New York in October 1674), Graham sailed to New York aboard the Blossom. Once in British America, he became a merchant and practiced law. He was granted patents to large tracts of land in Ulster County, Staten Island, and New Jersey. From its inception in 1683, until , Graham served as the first Recorder of New York City, essentially the deputy mayor of New York City (under mayors Cornelius Van Steenwyk, Gabriel Minvielle, Nicholas Bayard, Stephanus Van Cortlandt and Peter Delanoy).