Graffenried was born on November 15, 1661, in Worb Castle, Bern, Switzerland, the only child of Anton de Graffenried, Lord of Worb, by his first wife, Catherine Jenner. A restless youth, constantly at odds with his father who was critical of his extravagances, he nevertheless made friends with those high in political and social life.
After a period of Continental travel and study, Graffenried visited England about the year 1680. There, through Christopher Monck, second Duke of Albemarle, he secured introductions at the Court of Charles II. He was unsuccessful in negotiating a marriage, however, and went to France, where he was well received at the Court of Louis XIV. In 1702 he became bailiff of Iferton, in Neuchâtel. Falling into financial straits, Graffenried relinquished his office in 1708 and decided to retrieve his fortune in America. His interest in the Province of Carolina was intensified by conversations with Franz Ludwig Michel who was negotiating with the Canton of Bern in behalf of a company organized by Georg Ritter to take emigrants from Switzerland to North Carolina. In the hope of establishing mining operations in that region Graffenried went to London and in 1709 received a grant of 5, 000 acres from the Lords Proprietors of North Carolina and was appointed Landgrave. When Michel arrived in London shortly afterward he and Graffenried pooled their resources, their aim being to secure additional tracts of land on which both Swiss emigrants and German Palatines then in exile in England could be colonized. To this end Graffenried secured an option on 100, 000 acres, and in 1710 his interests were definitely merged with those of Michel and the Ritter Company. Thereupon transportation to North Carolina of ninety-two Palatine families (about 650 persons) was undertaken, the journey to America being under the personal guidance of John Lawson, surveyor-general of Carolina. Later in the year 1710 a company of 156 Swiss were brought over by Graffenried. The lands assigned for the colony lay between the Neuse and Trent Rivers, and there a town was laid out, called New Bern. Misfortune attended the colony from the beginning. About one-half of the Palatines died at sea, the labor of those who survived was exploited by Lawson, and supplies were so insufficient that Graffenried, after his arrival, had to mortgage his lands to Thomas Pollock of North Carolina and ultimately lost them. The settlers did not receive the small allotments promised them. The government of North Carolina was in a state of confusion, and proper protection was not given the colonists against the Indians. In 1711, when the Tuscaroras revolted, the Palatine and Swiss settlers suffered greatly by death and destruction of property. At the beginning of the conflict, Graffenried was captured but was ransomed and thereupon negotiated a truce, which was soon broken. After the first period of the conflict he visited Gov. Spotswood of Virginia seeking military aid and also lands in that province. He secured a patent for lands on the upper Potomac in the vicinity of the present Washington, where he hoped to find silver mines and whither also he hoped to transport the New Bern settlers. Since in this project he did not have the support of Michel, he returned to North Carolina, and, his resources being exhausted, he left the colony in 1713, and returned to his native Bern. There he spent his remaining years. He died in 1743.
On April 25, 1684 Graffenried married Regina Tscharner (1665-1731). Of his thirteen children, one son, Christopher, emigrated to Virginia and became the progenitor of the American branch of the family.
