Why does a man join the army? The answer was probably more obvious in the 18th century than now, but in 1793 Thomas Graham was 45. The son of a Perthshire laird and of a daughter of the Earl of Hopetoun, and having inherited a good fortune, in 1774, he had married the beautiful Mary Cathcart, daughter of Baron Cathcart and of Jane Hamilton, herself the daughter of Lord Archibald Hamilton, all scions of Scots whiggery.
It was evidently a love match. On the same day, Mary’s elder sister, Jane, had wed too. Their father wrote: ‘Jane has married, to please herself, John, Duke of Atholl, a peer of the realm; Mary has married Thomas Graham of Balgowan, the man of her heart, and a peer among princes.’
And so he proved. The Grahams spent the next 18 years as model country gentleman and lady, improving Balgowan, and later Lynedoch, their Perthshire estates, shooting and hunting and reading, as well as making the season’s visits to Edinburgh and London.
They also went to Brighton, where in October 1777 Mary met Georgiana, née Spencer, wife of the 5th Duke of Devonshire.
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