Old Photograph High Street Grantown On Spey Scotland

Old photograph of shops, buildings and people on the High Street in Grantown-on-Spey, Scotland. Originally called simply Grantown after Sir James Grant, " on Spey " was added by the burgh council in 1898. Sir James Grant of Grant, born on 19 May 1738, was a Scottish landowner and politician. He went by the nickname of the good Sir James. He was the son of Sir Ludovick Grant, 7th Baronet, and Lady Margaret Ogilvy, daughter of the statesman James Ogilvy, 1st Earl of Seafield. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ's College, Cambridge, England. He succeeded his father as Member of Parliament for Elginshire in 1761, a seat he held until 1768. In 1773 Grant succeeded his father as eighth Baronet of Colquhoun. In 1783 he was a co founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and served as its first Physical President. From 1790 to 1795 he was MP for Banffshire. He also served as Lord Lieutenant of Inverness-shire. He married Jean Duff, daughter of Alexander Duff of Hatton, in 1763. They had 14 children, seven of whom survived to adulthood. She died in 1805. Their children included Lewis Alexander Grant Ogilvy, 5th Earl of Seafield, and Colonel William Francis Ogilvy Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield. His sister, Penuel Grant, married the Scottish author, Henry Mackenzie. Sir James Grant died at the family seat of Castle Grant in February 1811, aged 72, and was succeeded by his son Lewis Alexander Grant, who later that year succeeded his second cousin as fifth Earl of Seafield.





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