John Graham, 4th Earl of Menteith ( – c. 1565), was a 16th-century Scottish nobleman.

Biography

John Graham had a gift of his own ward and marriage in late 1543 or 1544, following the death of his father,

William Graham, 3rd Earl of Menteith William Graham, 3rd Earl of Menteith (c. 1500 – c. 1543) was a Scottish magnate and third Earl of Menteith. Biography He was the son of Alexander Graham, 2nd Earl of Menteith (c. 1475 – c. 1537), and Margaret Buchanan. He was the great-gra ...

. This suggests that he was under the

age of majority The age of majority is the threshold of legal adulthood as recognized or declared in law. It is the moment when minors cease to be considered such and assume legal control over their persons, actions, and decisions, thus terminating the contr ...

at the time of his father's death. He formally acquired the earldom of Menteith in 1547, which also may suggest that reached the age of majority at that time, suggesting a birth year of approximately 1529. He inherited the earldom after the death of his father, William Graham was killed in a clan fight some time in autumn 1543, but certainly by 23 January 1544; some sources state that he was killed in October 1543 by the Tutor of Appin (a member of the Stewart family), after the Stewarts and their army ate a wedding feast to which the Earl had been invited. Some accounts also tell of the Murrays of Athole being the raiders of the feast. According to most stories, a band of Stewarts were passing through

Menteith Menteith or Monteith ( gd, Mòine Tèadhaich), a district of south Perthshire, Scotland, roughly comprises the territory between the Teith and the Forth. Earlier forms of its name include ''Meneted'', ''Maneteth'' and ''Meneteth''. (Historically ...

and happened upon a wedding feast. They ate up all the food, drank all the wine, and left within a short while. The Earl pursued them and was slain or mortally wounded by the robbers. In October 1548, Earl John Graham married Marion Seton, daughter of the 6th Lord Seton. Marion Seton went on to remarry after the death of the Earl, and likely married (as his third wife) John Gordon, 11th

Earl of Sutherland Earl of Sutherland is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created circa 1230 for William de Moravia and is the premier earldom in the Peerage of Scotland. The earl or countess of Sutherland is also the chief of Clan Sutherland. The origin ...

. Both of them were said to have been poisoned in 1567. In 1558, Earl John Graham joined the

Lords of the Congregation The Lords of the Congregation (), originally styling themselves "the Faithful", were a group of Protestant Scottish nobles who in the mid-16th century favoured a reformation of the Catholic church according to Protestant principles and a Scotti ...

and took part in the

Siege of Leith The siege of Leith ended a twelve-year encampment of French troops at Leith, the port near Edinburgh, Scotland. The French troops arrived by invitation in 1548 and left in 1560 after an English force arrived to attempt to assist in removing the ...

. Based upon this, this 4th Earl of Menteith would have been well-defined as a Covenanter. He died in late 1564 or early 1565. He died leaving two sons,

William William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

, who succeeded to the earldom, and George.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Menteith, John Graham, 4th Earl of Earls or mormaers of Menteith 16th-century Scottish peers