Francis William (Grant) Ogilvie-Grant Sixth Earl of Seafield (1778 - 1853)

Born 6 Mar 1778 in Cullen House, Banffshire, Scotland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 30 Jul 1853 at age 75 in Cullen House, Banffshire, Scotland.

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Francis (Grant) Ogilvie-Grant Sixth Earl of Seafield was a member of Scottish Nobility. Join: Scotland Project Discuss: Scotland

Biography

Francis (Grant) Ogilvie-Grant Sixth Earl of Seafield is a member of Clan Grant.

Colonel Francis William Ogilvie-Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield (b. 6 March 1778, d. 30 July 1853) was the son of Sir James Grant of Grant 8th Bt. and his wife Jean Duff . He married (1) Mary Anne Dunn, daughter of John Charles Dunn, on 20 May 1811 and (2) Louisa Emma Maunsell, daughter of Robert George Maunsell and Mabella O'Grady, on 17 August 1843.

He succeeded his elder brother as the 6th Earl of Seafield [S., 1701] on 26 October 1840. On doing so, he reversed the order of names in his family surname from Grant-Ogilvy to Ogilvy-Grant (or Ogilvie-Grant). As a younger son he was never destined to succeed to the family honours and therefore chose firstly a military and later a political career.

He started out in the family regiment, the Strathspey Fencibles at the age of 15 and then steadily rose through the ranks until becoming a Lieutenant Colonel in the 3rd Argyll Fencibles in which role he served for a while in Gibraltar. In 1809 on becoming Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire he was promoted to full Colonel.

He was generally known as "Colonel Grant". For some years he administered the family estates on behalf of his elder brother who showed increasing signs of mental illness. His military career was followed by a political one and he served first as Member of Parliament for the Elgin Burghs (meaning the towns in Elginshire now known as Morayshire) and thereafter for the Inverness-shire Burghs. As the franchise expanded he went on to serve as Member of Parliament for Elginshire and latterly Elginshire and Nairnshire. He had however been a strong supporter of Sir Robert Peel's administration and opposed the widening of the franchise in the great Reform Act 1832.

Following the death of his elder brother and his accession to the Earldom of Seafield, he ceased to be a Member of Parliament. He was appointed one of the Scottish Representative Peers and sat in the House of Lords in that capacity from 1841 until his death. During his lifetime he served as a parliamentarian for more than 50 years, a distinction few have matched either before or after.

He died on 30 July 1853 at age 75 at Cullen House, Banffshire, Scotland.

By his first wife, Mary Anne, he had:^[1]

1. James, b. 16 Apr 1812, at London; d. there 15 Mar 1815.
2. Francis William, styled Master of Grant, b. 05 Oct 1814; M.P. for Inverness-shire from 1838-1840, when he d. unmarried at Cullen House, while attending his mother's funeral. Mother and son buried at the new mausoleum at Duthill the same day.
3. John Charles, b. 04 Sep 1815. He succeeded his father as 7th Earl of Seafield.
4. James, succeeded his nephew as 9th Earl of Seafield.
5. Lewis Alexander, b. 18 Sep 1820, lieutenant Royal Horse Guards; m. Georgina, dau. of Robert George Maunsell 15 Aug 1849; d. 24 Dec 1902.
6. George Henry, b. 13 Feb 1825; m. Eleanora, 4th dau. of Sir William Gordon Gordon Cumming, of Altyre, Bart., 02 Oct 1855; d. 31 May 1873; captain 42nd Highlanders.
7. Edward Alexander, b. 17 Jun 1833; d. 26 Apr 1844.
8. Jane, b. 08 Sep 1813 at Cullen House; m. Major-General Sir Edward Walter Forestier Walker, K.C.B. 20 Jul 1843; d. 16 Sep 1861.

Francis was born in 1778. He passed away in 1853.

Sources

1. ↑ Paul, The Scots Peerage, Vol. 3:489-90 (Archive.org).

• Paul, James Balfour, Sir, The Scots Peerage, (Edinburgh : D. Doughlas, 1904) Vol. 3:485, 488-490. (Archive.org)
• Tayler, Alistair Norwich, The Book of the Duffs, (Edinburgh : W. Brown, 1914), p. 233.
• ThePeerage.com
• Seafield, Earl of (S, 1701) Cracroft's Peerage
• 1. Earl of Seafield - Wikipedia

2. ThePeerage.com

Research Note

The original Earls of Seafield were also Earls of Findlater and were members of the Ogilvy family and descended from a younger son of the Earl of Airlie. On the death of the 7th Earl of Findlater and 4th Earl of Seafield, the Findlater honours became dormant. Due to a different succession set out in their Letters Patent, the Earldom of Seafield and subsidiary titles passed to a 2nd cousin Sir Lewis Alexander Grant who was by then 9th Baronet of Colquhoun and became 5th Earl of Seafield. On the death of the 11th Earl of Seafield, the subsidiary titles of Lord Strathspey and Baronet of Strathspey separated from the Earldom and in 1950 the Lord Lyon declared the Lord Strathspey to be Chief of the Clan Grant. For that reason the Earl of Seafield is considered a member of Clan Grant rather than Clan Ogilvy or Clan Colquhoun.

Research Note

There is frequently a debate over whether the correct spelling of the family surname is Oglivy-Grant or Ogilvie-Grant. As the Seafield family uses “Ogilvie-Grant”, that is the preferred spelling. Francis Ogilvy Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield