Clementina Stirling Graham
1782–1877
Hostess and Author
Clementina Stirling Graham, of Duntrune, was a Scottish hostess and author, known for her Mystifications.
Clementina was the eldest daughter of Patrick Stirling of Pittendriech, by his wife Amelia Graham of Duntrune, Forfarshire. Her mother succeeded to the small estate of Duntrune, near Dundee, on the death of her brother Alexander in 1802, and her husband and herself then assumed the surname of Graham. Mrs. Graham was one of four daughters of Alexander Graham of Duntrune (d. 1782), whose ancestors William and James, both active Jacobites, in 1715 and 1745 respectively assumed the title of Viscount Dundee, as the nearest representatives of their kinsman John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee.
Her own opinions were with the Whigs, a member of the social circle of Edinburgh Whigs, of whom Francis Jeffrey and Lord Cockburn were leaders. She died 23 August 1877.
In early life Miss Graham enjoyed personation, and mystified her acquaintance by presenting herself to them disguised as somebody else. The pranks she played on Jeffrey and others were recorded by her in her old age at the request of her friend Dr. John Brown in the volume of Mystifications, first privately printed in 1859 together with a few poems and prose sketches. Dr. Brown edited the first published edition of Mystifications in 1865. She also translated from the French and published in 1829 The Bee Preserver, by Jonas de Gelieu, a Swiss author, for which she received a medal from the Highland Society. She also wrote some songs.
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