Charles Grant (1746 - 1823)

Born 16 Apr 1746 in Aldourie, Inverness-shire, Scotland

Husband of Jane (Fraser) Grant — married 23 Feb 1773 in Clement Danes, Westminster, London, England

Descendants

Died 31 Oct 1823 at age 77 in Russell Square, London, England

Biography

This profile is part of the Grant Name Study.

Charles Grant is a member of Clan Grant.

Charles Grant is Notable.

M.P., Director of the Hon. East India Company. Statesman and philanthropist.

Birth and Parentage

Charles Grant belonged to a branch of the family of Grant Castle in Inverness-shire. He was born at Aldourie farmhouse, on the SE shore of Loch Ness, in the parish of Dores, N.E. Inverness-shire, Scotland, on 16 April 1746, the third surviving child and first son of Alexander 'Alister-an Claigh' (Alister with the Sword) Grant, soldier in the Black Watch, and his wife Margaret, née MacBean, daughter of Donald MacBean, of Kinchyle. According to some accounts, a few hours after his birth his father, Alexander, was killed at the battle of Culloden, fighting for Charles Edward (Bonnie Prince Charlie), (after whom his son was named).^[1] Other accounts say that he survived and later died in 1762 of yellow fever contracted during the siege of Havana by his Highland regiment on behalf of the British Government. ^[2][3]

Life

When he was seven, before his father left Scotland, Grant was adopted by his uncle John, his father's youngest brother, and educated at a school in Elgin where his uncle worked for the Excise, ^[2]until he was 13. He then became an apprentice to a merchant in Cromarty, and then to his cousin Captain Alexander Grant, merchant in London, who in 1767 called him to India in the East India Company's military service. On his arrival, however, he obtained a post in the civil service.

In 1802 Grant entered parliament as member for Inverness-shire. His subsequent political career, at least in the East India Company, was achieved by means of the ubiquitous practice of networking and outright bribery. He became a Bengal 'Writer' or clerk for the Company in 1772,.^[2][4]a position which more or less guaranteed him a lucrative future. He was first chosen as deputy-chairman of the court of directors of the East India Company in 1804, and chairman in 1805. He was four times re-elected to one or other of these offices. ^[5]He had been for some time commissioner for the issue of exchequer bills, and became chairman, an office which he held till his death.

Marriage and Family

He married Jane née Fraser, resident at St George the Martyr, at the church of St Clement Danes, Westminster, London, Middlesex, on 23 February, 1773^[6].^[2]with whom he had six children:

1. Elizabeth. (b. ca.1774, d.1776) ^[2]
2. Margaret. (b. ca. 1775, d.1776) ^[2]
3. Maria (b.1 Dec 1776) ^[2]
4. Charles (b. 26 Oct 1778) ^[2]
5. Robert (b. 15 Jan 1780) ^[2]
6. Charemile (Charity) Emilia ^[7]
7. Sybilla Christina (d. 28 Aug 1862). ^[8]

House where the Grants lived in Malda, Bengal[9]

Charles, while respectable, had begun to lead a more profligate lifestyle in Calcutta, indulging in gambling, and a 'dissolute life'. He spent money unwisely and went into debt.^[2]This lifestyle continued until he and Jane lost both Elizabeth and then Margaret within nine days of each other, to smallpox in 1776. The experience was instrumental in bringing him to a spiritual crossroads. Whereas he had previously despised the Gospel and the claims of Christ, he now surrendered his life to God, and the resulting transformation of his life was to have a deep-reaching effect on his family and wider circles.^[10]While Grant had managed to get his introduction into the East India Company's inner circles by other means than merit, (he wrote to his uncle in 1772 that he had paid £5000 for a writership), he would later, in 1798, after his conversion, be instrumental in the enquiry into the sale of patronages. ^[4] He was close to others who believed passionately in the moral reform of Victorian upper class society, particularly the so-called Clapham Sect, including its most well-known member, William Wilberforce.^[4]

Death

He died on 31 October 1823 and his death was reported in the Westmeath Journal on 6 November. ^[11] There is a monument erected to his memory by the East India Company in St. George's, Bloomsbury.

Sources

1. ↑ Publications of the Scottish History Society Vol VIII. List of Rebels. Retrieved from Trades House Library (p.377;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9} Morris, Henry., (1904)., The Life of Charles Grant. Retrieved from Electric Scotland (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
3. ↑ Charles Grant. History of Parliament. Boydell and Brewer. Retrieved from HoP (Here;) Accessed 17 Mar 2022.
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Ghosh., Suresh Chandra., Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of London. (July 1966.) The Social Condition of the British Community in Bengal, 1757 - 1800. (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
5. ↑ The Asiatic journal and monthly miscellany (p.65). The East India Company. Vol 1. (Jan to June 1816). London: Wm. H. Allen & Co. Retrieved from the Internet Archive (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
6. ↑ Charles Grant, 1773 in England, Middlesex, Westminster, Parish Registers, 1538-1912 FamilySearch Online Database with images. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
7. ↑ Howard, Joseph Jackson, Crisp, Frederick Arthur; (1893)., College of Arms (Great Britain)., Visitation of England and Wales. Vol 10., [London] : Priv. printed. Retrieved from the Internet Archive (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
8. ↑ Charles Grant, Esq in entry for Sibylla Christina Grant Obituary, (28 Aug 1862). in British Newspaper Archive, Family Notices, FamilySearch Online Database, citing Inverness, Inverness-shire, Scotland, United Kingdom, 28 Aug 1862. The British Newspaper Archive, Ireland; FHL microfilm. Retrieved from FamilySearch (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
9. ↑ Morris, Henry., (1904)., The Life of Charles Grant. London: John Murray. Retrieved from Electric Scotland (facing p.72) Accessed 17 Mar 2022.
10. ↑ Kopf, David, (1969)., British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization, 1773-1835. University of California Press. Retrieved from Google Books (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.
11. ↑ Westmeath Journal. (6 Nov 1823). Retrieved from the British Newspaper Archive (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022.

[Obituary notice in Gent. Mag. for 1823, by Thomas Fisher, reprinted in 1833, and the chief source of other contemporary notices; Anderson's Scottish Nation; Colquhoun's William Wilberforce, his Friends, and his Times; Higginbotham's Men whom India has known; Kaye's Christianity in India. (Here;) Accessed 16 Mar 2022. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Grant,_Charles_(1746-1823)_(DNB00) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Grant_(British_East_India_Company)

See also:

• 'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell, published by The Hogarth Press, Pimlico, London in 1996. ISBN 0 7126 7450 0, includes extensive family trees. Hundreds of friends, professional connections and people in the 'Bloomsbury set' are also mentioned in the text.'Virginia Woolf' a biography by her nephew Quentin Bell

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Lucy Lavelle for starting this profile. Click the Changes tab for the details of contributions by Lucy and others.

• https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/5071266
• https://electricscotland.com/history/highlands/appendixb.htm