Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grant, Ludovick
GRANT, LUDOVICK (1650?–1716), of Grant, was eldest son of James Grant, seventh laird of Freuchie, and his wife, Lady Mary, only daughter of James Stewart, second earl of Murray (d. 1638). He was educated at the university of St. Andrews, and, being still under age when his father died in 1663, was for a time under the guardianship of his uncle, Lieutenant-colonel Patrick Grant, who thus became known as 'tutor of Grant.' On 26 Dec. 1671 he married Janet, only daughter of Alexander Brodie of Lethen, Nairnshire (Diaries of the Lairds of Brodie, Spalding Club, p. 323). During the rising of the covenanters in 1679 he was summoned with his clan to the assistance of the government. His wife, however, was a strong sympathiser with the presbyterians, and frequently received the ministers in her house. For this offence she and her husband were summoned in 1685 before commissioners appointed by the privy council, and Grant was condemned to pay a fine of 42,500l. Scots. He appealed to the king, and on account of his previous services obtained a remission. His father-in-law had been at the same time fined 40,000l. Scots for a similar offence, and to secure his safety Grant was constrained to pay three-fourths of the amount. The money paid by Grant is said to have been given by James to the Scots College at Douay. At the revolution an order rescinding the fine was obtained, but the money could not be recovered.
In 1681 Grant represented the county of Elgin in the Scottish parliament, and when the Test Act was under consideration he, along with Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun, took exception to some part of the procedure, and demanded that his protest should be placed on the minutes. James, then duke of York, was present and presided as commissioner for his brother, Charles II, and observing Grant's persistence remarked from the throne: 'His highland majesty need not be afraid, the protest shall be marked.' Grant was not opposed to the claim of James VII to the British throne, and on Argyll's insurrection in 1685 raised a regiment on the king's side from among his own kinsmen and vassals.
At the revolution, however, he declared for the Prince of Orange, and was an active member of the convention of estates which met at Edinburgh in 1689. He was one of a committee appointed to report on the state of the highlands. He raised a regiment in support of the government of between seven and eight hundred men, and was appointed its colonel in April 1689, about which time also he was constituted sheriff of Inverness-shire, an office which he held until his death (Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, ix. 1-100 passim). He rendered material assistance to General Mackay in his campaign in the highlands against Dundee at considerable expense, which was never made good by the government. It was on his lands and in the neighbourhood of Castle Grant that the final battle of 'the haughs of Cromdale' was fought between the adherents of James VII and the troops of the Prince of Orange (Mackay, Memoirs, p. 95).
Grant was chosen parliamentary representative for the county of Inverness, and sat as such until the dissolution of the Scottish parliament in 1707. He was frequently employed on parliamentary commissions. One of these visited the universities of the kingdom and dealt with disloyal professors, while another regulated the plantation of churches.
In 1694 Grant obtained a crown charter erecting his barony of Freuchie into the regality of Grant. His castle, which was formerly known as Ballachastell, became Castle Grant, and Castleton became the village of Grantown, while his own designation of laird of Freuchie was changed to laird of Grant. In 1677 he became proprietor of the estate of Pluscarden, Elgin. It was purchased for 5,000l., the money being provided by his father-in-law, the laird of Brodie, who stipulated that the lands should form the inheritance of his daughter's second son.
By his first wife, Janet Brodie, Grant had five sons and four daughters. Three of the sons held high positions in the army. His successor as laird of Grant was his second son, Brigadier-general Alexander Grant of Grant, who is separately noticed above, and was succeeded by his immediate younger brother, Sir James Grant of Grant. The two youngest sons were Major George Grant of Culbin, governor of Fort George, and deputy-governor of Inverness-shire, and Colonel Lewis Grant. Grant's youngest daughter, Margaret, was the first wife of Simon Fraser, twelfth lord Lovat [q. v.] Janet Brodie died in 1697, and Grant married as his second wife, in 1701, Jean, daughter of Sir John Houston, and widow of Sir Richard Lockhart of Lee, but had no issue by her. He died at Edinburgh in November 1716, and was buried in the abbey of Holyrood there, beside the remains of his father, on the 19th of that month.
[Sir William Fraser's The Chiefs of Grant, i. 291-328; authorities quoted above.]