Major-General John Graham of Claverhouse, 1st Viscount Dundee (21 July 1648 – 27 July 1689) was a Scottish army officer. A Tory and Episcopalian, he was responsible for policing southwest Scotland to suppress religious unrest and rebellion of Covenanters during the late 17th century. His allegedly brutal conduct during this period led him to be nicknamed "Bluidy Clavers".
As a general in the Scots Army, Claverhouse was made Viscount Dundee by James VII of Scotland, and remained loyal to James after the Glorious Revolution deposed him. Dundee rallied Highland clans loyal to the Jacobite cause and led the Jacobite rising of 1689 to victory at the Battle of Killiecrankie, where he died. The rising was unsuccessful, but Claverhouse posthumously was made a Jacobite hero, acquiring the soubriquet "Bonnie Dundee".
The Graham family was descended from Robert III of Scotland through his second daughter Princess Mary. John Graham was the elder son of Sir William Graham and Lady Madeline Carnegie, from a junior branch of the family that had acquired the estate of Claverhouse near Dundee. His date of birth is disputed but generally assumed to be in 1648. He had two sisters and was educated with his younger brother David at the University of St Andrews, graduating in 1661.
While closely related to James Graham, 1st Marquess Montrose, known as the "Great Montrose", William Graham did not join his Highland Campaign of 1644–1645. John and David became wards of their uncles and other relatives after his death around 1652. In 1660, they were listed as burgesses of Dundee, 'by reason of their father's privilege' and John Graham inherited the Claverhouse estate when he came of age in the summer of 1669.
The Claverhouse properties included a house in Glen Ogilvie in the Sidlaw Hills to the north of Dundee (since demolished), Claypotts Castle, and a house at Mill of Mains. In 1669 Graham's maternal uncle, David Carnegie, Lord Lour, secured him an appointment as a Commissioner of Excise and Justice of the Peace for Angus.
Service during the Franco–Dutch War 1672–1678
As a result of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, many in both Scotland and England viewed standing armies as a threat to individual liberty and society itself. Lack of opportunities at home meant those like Claverhouse who wanted a military career joined units in foreign service, such as the French Irish Brigade or the Dutch Scots Brigade. Loyalties were often based on religion or personal relationships, while officers frequently moved between armies; Marshal Turenne (1611–1675), considered the greatest French general of his time, was a Protestant who served in the Dutch army from 1625 to 1630 before changing allegiance.
When the Franco-Dutch War broke out in 1672, England was allied with France, largely due to secret payments made by Louis XIV to Charles II. Claverhouse was appointed Captain in Sir William Lockhart's Scots Regiment, part of an Anglo-Scots brigade commanded by the Duke of Monmouth that served with the French during 1673–1674. Supporting Catholic France against the Protestant Dutch Republic was unpopular, especially in Scotland which had close cultural end economic links and England withdrew from the war after the 1674 Treaty of Westminster.
Many members of the Anglo-Scots Brigade now enrolled with the Dutch, including Claverhouse. This unit had been part of the Dutch army since the 1580s and despite the name, normally contained a mixture of regiments recruited in Scotland and England. Withdrawn in 1672, the English units were restored in 1674 but since the Scots regiments had also lost much of their national identity, a deliberate policy was adopted to re-establish them as English and Scottish units. Claverhouse fought at the Battle of Seneffe in 1674, where it is alleged he rescued the young William of Orange, although this appears doubtful.
In the absence of a permanent army, the Scots Brigade was an important source of military professionals for both Charles II and James II (and VII), who nominally controlled the appointment of officers. In reality, this required negotiation and many Brigade officers were political and religious exiles, particularly after the 1679–81 Exclusion Crisis; in 1680, Charles tried to appoint the Catholic Earl of Dumbarton as Brigade commander but William refused. James in particular tracked the careers of potential supporters, like the Catholics Thomas Buchan and Alexander Cannon, also officers in the Scots Brigade and who replaced Claverhouse after his death at Killiecrankie. In early 1678, Claverhouse resigned his commission and returned to Scotland; one suggestion is this was due to a disciplinary incident which led to him being passed over for promotion.
With James' recommendation, in September 1678 Claverhouse was given command of one of the 'Highland' companies employed to police South-West Scotland; unlike the earlier semi-private 'Independent' companies, these were funded by the government. While the primary objective was the suppression of illegal Presbyterian field meetings or Conventicles, it was also driven by the conflict between the Presbyterian Earl of Argyll and the equally Presbyterian Macleans over control of Mull.
Demarcation disputes between Claverhouse and regional magnates such as the Earl of Queensberry meant he had to tread carefully; in December 1678, the regular clergy complained when he told them that he had no orders to apprehend anyone for past misdemeanours. The situation then exploded when Covenanter militants killed Archbishop James Sharp on 3 May 1679.
Hearing news of a large conventicle on 1 June 1679, Claverhouse located it near Loudoun Hill but "little to our advantage; for, when we came in sight of them, we found them drawn up in batell, upon a most advantagious ground, to which there was no coming but through mosses and lakes. They were not preaching... They consisted of four battalions of foot, and all well armed with fusils and pitchforks, and three squadrons of horse."
The Covenanter force was led by 19-year-old William Cleland, who had positioned them at the top of a hill, with a marsh in front; after exchanging fire, the 240 dragoons advanced but became stuck in the wet ground and seeing this, the Covenanters charged. Claverhouse's horse was wounded and maddened by pain, carried him away from the battle, with his troopers following; the Battle of Drumclog was little more than a skirmish but cost the government 36 men and raised Covenanter morale.
He later wrote to the Earl of Linlithgow that the Covenanters: "resolved a generall engadgment, and immediately advanced with there foot, the horse following: they came throght the lotche ... they recaived our fyr, and advanced to shok: the first they gave us broght down the Coronet Mr Crafford and Captain Bleith, besides that with a pitchfork they made such an opening in my rone horse's belly, that his guts hung out half an elle, and yet he caryed me aff an myl: which so discouraged our men, that they sustained not the shok, but fell into disorder".
Claverhouse returned to Glasgow, which the Covenanters briefly besieged but could not take without artillery. On 3 June, Claverhouse and his troops headed for Stirling Castle, the strongest fort in Scotland to await the arrival of reinforcements under Monmouth, which included the militia and two regiments of dragoons. He escaped censure for Drumclog but was made subordinate to Monmouth; on 22 June, the sides met again at the Battle of Bothwell Brig and this time the Covenanters were routed.
Nearly 1200 Covenanter prisoners were held at Greyfriars Kirkyard in Edinburgh; Claverhouse was dispatched to London to protest against Monmouth's alleged leniency towards them. This began his close relationship with James, who in 1680 awarded him the barony of Freuch in Galloway.
In January 1681, he was appointed to the sheriffships of Wigtown, Dumfries, Kirkcudbright and Annandale. In December 1682, he was appointed colonel of a new regiment to be raised in Scotland. He had still greater honours in view. In January 1683, the case of the Earl of Lauderdale was debated in the House of Lords. Lauderdale was proprietor of the lands and lordship of Dundee and Dudhope, and the decree of the Lords against him was issued in March 1683 for the sum of 72,000 pounds. Claverhouse succeeded in having the Castle of Dudhope (part of the property of the defaulter) and Lauderdale's title of Constable of Dundee transferred to him by royal grant in 1684. In May 1683, he was nominated to the Privy Council of Scotland.