Mr. Graham is the eldest son of the late Mr. Wm. Graham, of Burnshields, by Catherine, daughter of Mr. J. Swanston. He was born in Glasgow in 1817, and after passing some time at a private school, was sent to Glasgow University, where he finished his education. He is married to Jane Catherine, daughter of the late Mr. John Lowndes, formerly of Arthurlie, Renfrewshire. Mr. Graham succeeded to his father's place as head of the firm of William Graham & Co., merchants. The principal business in which he is engaged is that of cotton-spinning, the firm owning the Lancefield Factory, which, if not one of the largest, is at any rate one of the oldest establishments of its kind in Glasgow, and carries the memory back to the days when cotton and not iron was the industrial King of the West. At the Lancefield Factory there are upwards of 1000 hands employed, principally women, and the annual output of cotton is nearly equal to that of some of the largest mills in Manchester. Besides being a cotton-spinner, however, Mr. Graham is also a wine importer on a very considerable scale, and is largely engaged in the East India produce trade. Vintages of the choicest quality, and ports of the heaviest "body," are imported by the firm direct from Lisbon and Oporto, where they have branch establishments; and so conspicuous for their excellence are the wines which they import, that when _paterfamilias_ wants to impress upon his guest that he is enjoying an unmistakeable treat, he announces that the grateful beverage under discussion "was imported direct by William Graham & Co." In his father's days, Mr. Graham represented the house both in India and on the Continent, and since he became head of the firm, he has devoted himself with the utmost assiduity to the management and direction of affairs at home. Thus, unlike either of his colleagues, Mr. Graham takes an active personal supervision of a large mercantile concern, at the same time that he earns the credit of being one if the most regular attenders in the House of Commons. Indeed, he makes it a matter of duty to attend the House closely, and it is a fair matter of doubt whether there are half-a-dozen members--not in office--who attend to their Parliamentary duty with more punctuality and unfailing attention than the three representatives for Glasgow.