Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grant, James (1738-1811)
GRANT, Sir JAMES (1738–1811), baronet of Grant, N.B., member of parliament, born 19 May 1738, was only son of Sir Ludovick Grant, baronet of that ilk, by his second wife, Lady Margaret Ogilvie, eldest daughter of James, earl of Findlater and Seafield. He sat in parliament for Elgin and Forres from 1761 to 1768, and on the death of his father, 18 March 1773, succeeded to the baronetcy and the chieftainship of the clan Grant. On the formation of the Highland Society in 1784 he was one of the original office-bearers. He represented Banff from 1790 to 1795, resigning his seat on appointment as cashier of the excise. He was lord-lieutenant of Inverness-shire from 1794 until 1809, when he resigned and was succeeded by his eldest son. On the breakingout of the war with France, Grant offered to raise a regiment of Strathspey or Grant fencible infantry, a service so speedily accomplished that when the regiment assembled at Forres, two months after the declaration of war, seventy men had to be discharged as supernumeraries in excess of the authorised strength. Grant received the army rank of colonel, 1 March 1793. Immediately after he raised a highland regiment of the line, enrolled as the 97th or Strathspey foot. It served for a time as marines on board Lord Howe's fleet, in 1794, and was broken up at Portsmouth and drafted into other regiments the year after, the flank companies, which were very fine, being transferred entire to the Black Watch. His great local influence and popularity thus enabled Grant to add thirteen hundred men to the defensive force of the country within a few months, exclusive of the recruits raised for the 97th by other officers.
Grant married, in 1763, Jean, daughter of Alexander Duff of Hatton, Aberdeenshire, and by her, who died in 1805, had three sons and three daughters. His eldest son, Sir Alexander Ludovick Grant, succeeded in 1811 to the earldom and estates of Seafield. Grant died at Castle Grant, where the greater part of his useful life had been spent, on 18 Feb. 1811, after a lingering illness, aged 72.
[Foster's Peerage, under 'Seaforth;' Anderson's Scottish Nation, ii. 362; General David Stewart's Scottish Highlanders (Edinburgh, 1822), ii. 255-6, 351-7, lxxxvii.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.139
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
| Page | Col. | Line | |
| 389 | ii | 21 f.e. | Grant, Sir James (1738-1811): after Seafield. insert He was admitted fellow-commoner of Christ's College, Cambridge, in 1756, and graduated M.A. next year. |
| 390 | i | 18 | for Seafield read Seaforth |