Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Graham, Henry Grey
GRAHAM, HENRY GREY (1842–1906), writer on Scottish history, born in the manse of North Berwick, on 3 Oct. 1842, was youngest of eleven children of Robert Balfour Graham, D.D., minister of the established church of North Berwick, by his wife Christina, daughter of Archibald Lawrie, D.D., minister of Loudon. At an early ago he showed a great love of reading and spent most of his pocket-money on books. On the death of his father in 1855, his mother took him and her youngest daughter to Edinburgh, where, two years afterwards, he entered the university. Although showing no absorbing interent in the work of the classes and acquiring no university distinctions, he was a prominent and clever speaker in the debating societies. After being licenced as a probationer of the Church of Scotland in 1865, he was assistant at Bonhill, Dumbartonshire, until he was appointed in March 1868 to the charge of Nenthom, Berwickshire. Here he made the acquaintance of Alexander Russel [q. v.], editor of the 'Scotsman,' who was accustomed to come to Nenthorn in summer; and he became a frequent contributor to the 'Scotsman' of reviews and leading articles. Of non-theological tendencies and widely tolerant in his opinions, he was, after the death of Dr. Robert Leo [q. v.], of Old Greyfriars church, Edinburgh, asked to become a candidate for the vacancy, but declined. In 1884 he was translated to Hyndland parish church, Glasgow, where he remained till his death on 7 May 1906. In 1878 he married Alice, daughter of Thomas Carlyle of Shawhill, advocate, and left a son, who died in Egypt, and a daughter.
Graham's principal work is 'Social Life of Scotland in the Eighteenth Century' (1899, 2 vols.; 3rd edit. 1906), graphically descriptive as well as learned. His 'Scottish Men of Letters of the Eighteenth Century' (1901; 2nd edit. 1908) is also very readable. For Blackwood's series of 'Foreign Classics' he wrote a monograph on 'Rousseau' (1882); and his 'Literary and Historical Essays' (published posthumously in 1908) include 'Society in France before the Revolution' (lectures at the Royal Institution, Feb. 1901) and a paper on 'Russel of the "Scotsman."'
[Scotsman, and Glasgow Herald, 8 May 1906; Graham's Essays, 1908, pref.]