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 Grant History
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Grant territory lies chiefly
on Speyside, between the two Craigellachies - one
above Aviemore and the other where the river
enters the coastal plain of Moray. It includes
the district of Rothiemurchus on the slopes of
the Cairngorms, and the straths of Glenurquhart
and Glenmoriston on the other side of Loch Ness.
There have been Grants in the north since at
least the 13th century, when Laurence (also on
record as sheriff of Inverness) and Robert
'called Grant' witnessed a transaction in the
bishop of Moray's court. But the real history of
the clan begins from the time when they became
landholders in Strathspey in 1434. The first
chief on record, Sir Duncan, acquired Freuchie
near the modern Grantown by marriage, and it was
erected into a barony in 1494. A castle built
there in 1536, known first as Bellachastle and
later as Castle Grant. From the outset the laird
was supported by his kinsfolk in consolidating
his property; the barony of Strathspey, for
example, was feued by himself, his three sons,
and his kinsmen Grant of Culcabock, Grant of
Ballindalloch and his brother, and another Grant.
By the end of the 16th century he was being
styled Laird of Grant or Grant of that Ilk, and
the surname was being widely adopted; two lists
of the inhabitants of Duthil in the Grant
country, separated by only about thirty years,
show a change from Gaelic patronymics to the name
of Grant. The barony of Urquhart was given to the
chief by James IV in 1509, two of his sons
receiving the neighbouring lands of Glenmoriston
and Corriemony. By the time of the civil war the
Laird of Grand had built up 'ane great huge
estait', and in 1694 all his lands and their
outlying portions were formed into the regality
of Grant.
The Grant chiefs' relations
with their clan and its leaders were sometimes
unusual. In 1584 the ailing chief, who had lost
his son and heir and found himself 'mishandlet'
by his neighbours, sent his surviving son and
grandson to ask 'his maist specill freindis and
kynnis men' if they had no fault to find with
him so that it might be amended (the gentlemen of
the clan met in the church of Cromdale and sent a
reassuring answer). Although clan tartans as such
were still unknown, a baron court in 1704 enacted
by order of the young laird that all able-bodied
tenants and cottars should provide themselves
with 'Highland coats, trews and short hose of
tartan of red and green sett '. In 1710 the chief
resigned all his estates to his son, and handed
over the chiefship to him before the whole clan
assembled in full dress at the gathering place of
Ballintome. In the next generation the councilors
of clan Grant caused the young laird to be
imprisoned on account of misbehaviour and
prodigality, which would have imperiled the
estate.
After 1745 the Grant estates
were reorganised by Sir James, and the interests
of the lesser tenants safeguarded. Grantown was
established in 1766 as a small agricultural and
industrial centre, the village of Lewiston
founded in Glenurquhart, timber from the
Rothiemurchus forests was floated down the Spey,
and planting pushed forward. After some family
adjustments to ensure that the chief's marriage
with a Colquhoun of Luss would not result in the
two estates being united, the chiefship was held
along with the earldom of Seafield from 1811 to
1915, after which (while remaining in the same
family) it became separated from the wide estates
which the Grants had done so much to improve. |
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