DOWN MEMORY LANE: Three generations of Highland men, with battle links to Culloden, at the very top of their game
The man they called The Swordsman fought for the Jacobite cause at Culloden while his son, born on the day of the battle, was to head up the world’s first multinational company and his grandson would become Britain’s Secretary of War, writes Bill McAllister.
Alexander Grant earned the nickname for his fighting skills long before 1746.
His father, Captain Robert Grant of Milton, Drumnadrochit, was an officer in the Clan Chisholm regiment and was fatally wounded that grim day, along with other son James.
The Swordsman saved the life of Sorley McDonald in the battle. A trooper raised to strike the fallen McDonald, only to have that arm severed by a single sword blow. Later, Grant forded the Ness Islands and was confronted by a mounted trooper, who he cut down before taking his horse.
He remained in hiding for two years after the battle. Later he accepted a commission for service in America and died of a fever during the Siege of Havana, 16 years after Culloden.
In Aldourie farmhouse, Dores, on the day his father fought at Culloden, Charles Grant was born. His mother was Margaret MacBean, daughter of a tenant farmer.
Adopted by an uncle, Charles was educated at Elgin and at 17 was offered a job in London by his cousin Captain Alexander Grant, a merchant banker. Charles rose to become head clerk before sailing to India in 1767 to join the civil service.
Returning in 1770 to marry Jane, daughter of Colonel Thomas Fraser of Balnain, he was back in India as a factor for the East India Company three years later. He rose to become senior merchant of a silk factory, building a considerable fortune and joining the company’s board of trade.
He left India again in 1790 and 12 years later became MP for Inverness-shire. In 1804 he joined the main board of the East India Company and a year later became its chairman.
With his friend William Wilberforce, he fought against slavery, sought to progress education in India and was one of the first vice-presidents of the British and Foreign Bible Society.
He acquired a sizeable Skye estate and promoted the building of the Caledonian Canal as well as Highland roads and bridges. He died suddenly at his home in London in 1823.
His eldest son, also Charles, born in India in 1778, qualified as a barrister and became MP for Inverness Burghs in 1811, switching to his father’s old Inverness-shire seat in 1818. His brother, Sir Robert Grant, was also an MP in addition to being Governor of Bombay.
Charles was appointed a Lord of the Treasury and then, in 1819, Chief Secretary for Ireland. Later he became President of the Board of Trade and Treasurer of the Navy. In 1829 his support for Catholic emancipation led to his effigy being burned in an Inverness riot. The backing of James Grant of Bught and Provost James Robertson of Aultnaskiach, however, ensured his re-election.
Later he wrote the still popular hymn ‘O Worship the King, All Glorious Above’.
Quitting the Tories over the Reform Bill to become a Whig, Grant was appointed President of the Board of Control in 1830. In April 1835 he became Secretary of State for War and the Colonies and accepted a peerage as the first Baron Glenelg.
However, a dispute with King William IV, over Canadian unrest, saw him resign in 1839. He was 87 when he died and as he was unmarried and without children, the barony became extinct.
The Swordsman’s son and grandsons had certainly made their mark…
Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.
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