A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Grant, Anne
GRANT, ANNE,
Whose maiden name was Mac Vicar, was born at Glasgow, in February, 1755. When a child, she went with her father, who was an officer in the British army, to America, and spent some time in the interior of New York. While residing near Albany, Miss Mac Vicar was introduced to the notice of Madame Schuyler, wife, or widow rather, of Colonel Philip Schuyler; and to this "American lady," the English maiden, afterwards Mrs Grant, acknowledges she owed "whatever of culture her mind received." She returned to Scotland in 1768, and in 1779 married the Rev. Mr. Grant, of Laggan, by whom she had several children. On the death of her husband, in 1801, being obliged to resort to her pen for subsistence, she wrote "The Highlanders, and other Poems," "Memoirs of an American Lady," "Letters from the Mountains," "Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland," etc. She died on the 7th. of November, 1838, at Edinburgh, where she resided during the latter part of her life, and where she was the centre of a large circle of accomplished and literary people. From 1825 tin her death she enjoyed a royal pension of one hundred pounds yearly, which, with the emoluments derived from her writings. and some liberal bequests, rendered her quite independent.