Robert Graham of Gartmore

Robert Graham (1735 – 11 December 1797), who took the name Bontine in 1770 and Cunninghame Graham in 1796, was a Scottish politician and poet. He is now remembered for a poem If doughty deeds my lady please, which was later set to music by his great-great-grandson, Rev. Malise Cunninghame Graham and also by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Early life Robert, the second son of Nicol Graham of Gartmore and Lady Margaret Cunningham, was born at Gartmore, Perthshire, and educated, along with his elder brother William, at the University of Glasgow (matriculating under Professor Andrew Rosse). He spent much of his early life in Jamaica, where he was a planter, slave-owner and merchant, and became Receiver-General for Taxes in 1753 and profited from his involvement in sugar plantations in the Caribbean. Slave holder in Jamaica Graham writes in his letters of numerous liaisons with enslaved women and this infers he is likely to have fathered children by them.