Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grant, John Peter
GRANT, Sir JOHN PETER (1774–1848), chief justice of Calcutta, only son of William Grant, M.D., of Lyme Street, London, and afterwards of the Doune of Rothiemurchus, was born 21 Sept. 1774. He succeeded to the entailed estate of Rothiemurchus, on the death of his uncle, Patrick Grant, called the 'White Laird,' in 1790. Grant studied law first at Edinburgh, where he was admitted advocate 28 June 1796, then at Lincoln's Inn, where he was called to the bar 29 Jan. 1802. He sat in the parliament of 1812 for Great Grimsby, Lincolnshire, and in the two subsequent parliaments for Tavistock. In 1827 he went to India as puisne judge, first at Bombay then at Calcutta, where he was afterwards chief justice. Previous to leaving this country he was knighted. He died at sea on his passage home, 17 May 1848, and was buried in the Dean cemetery, Edinburgh. He was married and had issue two sons and three daughters; his second son, Sir John Peter Grant (b.1807), was successively lieutenant-governor of Bengal and governor of Jamaica.
Grant wrote: 1. ‘Some Observations on the Constitution and Forms of Proceeding of the Court of Session in Scotland, with Remarks on the Bill now depending in the House of Lords for its Reform,’ 1807. 2. ‘Essays towards Illustrating some Elementary Principles relating to Wealth and Currency,’ 1812. 3. ‘A Summary of the Law relating to Granting New Trials in Civil Suits by Courts of Justice in England,’ 1817. 4. ‘Speech in the House of Commons, 10 Feb. 1818, on Lord A. Hamilton's Motion relating to the Conduct of the Law Officers of the Crown in Scotland,’ 1818. 5. ‘Substance of a Speech delivered in the House of Commons on 5 May 1825, on Moving for Leave to bring in a Bill to Alter and Amend an Act passed in the Parliament of Scotland, 8th and 9th Session, 1st Parliament of King William III, intituled an Act for Preventing Wrongous Imprisonments, and against Undue Delays in Trials,’ 1825 (manuscript notes by Lord Cockburn are appended to the British Museum copy).
[Fraser's Chiefs of Grant. Edinb. 1883, ii. 510; Gent. Mag. September 1848, p. 335; Kay's Edinburgh Portraits, ed. 1877, ii. 362-3; Brit. Mus. Cat.; Cat. Advocates' Library.]