Fifeshire, and Grant, whose grandmother was a Stewart, repudiated his allegiance to Huntly, and took up arms to avenge the slaughter of his kinsman. He joined the army which James VI sent soon afterwards under the Earl of Argyll to subdue Huntly. Argyll was defeated by Huntly at Glenlivet, and, when Huntly again regained favour from James, Grant deemed it prudent to keep himself more in favour with him.
In 1602 Grant was commissioned by James VI to put down witchcraft in the highlands. In 1607 he was chosen as one of two commissioners from the king to introduce the restored Bishop of Moray at the meeting of the synod of Moray under pretext of appointing the bishop constant moderator. About this time the clan Gregor or Macgregors had been proscribed by the authorities. Some of them found shelter with the Grants and assumed their name. A complaint was laid against Grant that he was a chief harbourer of the Macgregor outlaws, and he was ordered by letters from James VI to disprove the accusation and attest his loyalty by proceeding against the obnoxious clan. Grant apprehended a few of them; but notwithstanding this he was fined in a large sum for intercommuning with the outlaws and permitting members of his clan, for whom he was responsible, to do so.
As convener of the justices of the peace in Moray Grant was summoned in 1612 to attend a meeting of the privy council in Edinburgh. In 1615 he was again in Edinburgh, and sat as a juror on the trial of Patrick Stewart, earl of Orkney, who was convicted of rebellion and treason and executed (Pitcairn, Criminal Trials, iii. 308-18). In 1620 he had also a commission to deal with the 'vagabond gipsies,' whose lawlessness obliged the privy council to adopt stringent measures for their suppression. Grant added to the patrimonial inheritance the neighbouring estates of Abernethy and Cromdale in Strathspey, and also secured Rothiemurchus from the Mackintoshes as a Grant possession. He sold his Ross-shire lands to the Mackenzies, from whom his great-grandfather, John, second laird of Freuchie [q. v.], had taken them (History of the Mackenzies, p. 163). It is said that James VI in 1610 offered Grant a peerage, but that he refused it, asking the question, 'An' wha'll be laird o' Grant?' He died on 20 Sept. 1622, and was buried in Duthil churchyard.
His wife was Lilias, daughter of Sir John Murray (afterwards first earl) of Tullibardine, Perthshire. Their contract of marriage is dated 15 April 1591, and James VI and his queen are said to have been present at the marriage. John Taylor, the Water Poet, who visited Castle Grant in 1618, says she was a lady both inwardly and outwardly plentifully adorned with the gifts of grace and nature (Taylor, Works, ed. C. Hindley, 1872, p. 55). She was herself a poetess. She survived her husband till 1643, and bore to Grant one son and four daughters. Grant had also a natural son, Duncan, ancestor of the Grants of Clunie.
[Sir William Fraser's The Chiefs of Grant. i. 159-96; Shaw's History of the Province of Moray, pp. 31, 32; Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. iv. passim; Sir Robert Gordon's History of the Earldom of Sutherland, pp. 192-226; Gregory's Highlands and Islands of Scotland, pp. 245-53.]
GRANT, JOHN (1782–1842), lieutenant 2nd royal veteran battalion, and lieutenant-colonel Portuguese service, a famous spy in the Peninsular war, began his military career as a subaltern in the Glamorganshire militia, with which he served in Ireland in 1799. In the same year he volunteered to the line from the embodied militia, and was appointed a lieutenant in the 4th foot, but was placed on half-pay at the peace of Amiens. On the renewal of the war he was brought on full pay as a lieutenant of foot, which rank he held throughout the war. He served under Sir Robert Thomas Wilson on the Portuguese frontier in 1808-9, with the irregular force known as the Lusitanian legion, and was wounded. When Wilson was defeated and left Portugal, Grant joined the Portuguese army under Marshal William Carr Beresford [q. v.], in which he became major, and afterwards lieutenant-colonel. Grant was much employed as a partisan leader and spy, in which capacity he assumed a variety of disguises, and underwent most extraordinary adventures. There is much confusion of his exploits with those of Major Colquhoun Grant (1780-1829) [q. v.], 11th foot, a scouting officer. Wellington wrote to Beresford, on 19 Feb. 1811, apparently in reference to John Grant: 'I wish he had sent us the examination of some of his prisoners. He appears to be going on capitally, and likely to save much valuable property in the Estrada. I shall be much obliged if you will tell him how much gratified I have been at reading the accounts of his operations' (Naval and Military Gazette, 1 July 1848, p. 429). At the end of the war Grant was appointed lieutenant in the late 2nd royal veteran battalion, and was retired on full pay when the veteran battalions were abolished. Grant acted as secretary to the committee formed in London by the Earl of Durham, Lord William Bentinck, and others in 1820, when Marshal Beresford was dismissed from his Portuguese
