GRANT, William Letter Writer, Merchant, Cotton Planter ^{1 2}

   User ID: Z80.

  General Notes:

"GRANT
WILLIAM
ROBT GRANT MARY CUMINE
M
09/10/1722
128/B 10 103
Cromdale and Inverallan"

from Births and Baptisms

"He studied at Marischal College, Aberdeen; afterwards served with Dingwall & Fordyce, Merchants, there; was a Merchant there in 1754; subsequently a Merchant in London, in partnership with Captain Alexander Grant of the Sheuglie family, and Robert Grant, son of Tammore's sister, Margaret, wife of Alexander Grant, Hillockhead, Rothes. Was afterwards a Cotton Planter at Grenada, and, at the time of his death, in 1780 or 1781, was Collector of the Customs at St. Lucia, a position to which he was appointed by General James Grant of Ballindalloch, on the latter's ...

from Letters of Patrick Grant

During his time as a merchant William worked for or with the firm of Robert Grant & Company trading in Canada. he has also passed into history as a letter writer who has provided us with vital historical information:

"The emigration from Speyside seems to have had its fons et origo in the operations of a firm of Scottish Merchants in London, known as Robert Grant & Company, the partners of which were Robert, Alexander and William Grant. Robert Grant who was the active head of the firm, was born in 1720 and died in 1803, and was the founder of the present family of Grant of Elchies. It has generally been assumed that the William Grant who was a member of the firm was the Hon. William Grant of St. Roch; for when the Hon. William Grant of St Roch came to Canada as a very young man, he made an abortive purchase from the Marquis de Vaudreuil of a grant of fur-trading rights at La Baye, on Lake Michigan, 'for himself and the firm of Robert Grant & Co.' There are however, in the British Museum series of letters written by the William Grant who was a member of the firm; and from these it was clear that he was a wholly different person, a son of Robert Grant of Tammore and a cousin of Robert Grant of London. These letters throw a flood of welcome light on the operations of the firm of Robert Grant & Co., and on the emigrants from Speyside to Canada.

It is clear from them, that long before the Britsh captured Quebec, the members of the firm were doing business in Halifax. In 1756 Robert Grant was in Halifax, Nova Scotia and was made a member of the Council of the province; and William Grant writes, under date of August 31, that he has 'just sent of Peter Stewart and John Grant with some goods to Nova Scotia.' When Quebec was captured, the firm seems to have transferred its attention to Canada. It is reasonable to suppose that the 'Peter Stewart' who was sent out to Nova Scotia in 1756 was the Peter Stewart who later became a prominent merchant of Quebec, interested in the fur-trade of the King's Posts on the St Lawrence; and there is no doubt that the Hon. William Grant of St Roch was sent out to Quebec about 1762 as an agent of the firm. There must also have been others, for William Grant, the writer of the letters, says in a letter from London, dated Feb. 10, 1763, 'I can take care of three or four lads every year without being any loss to me and hope to give as good an account of those as them I have already exported, who have all been peculiarly lucky.'

During these years, the firm of Robert Grant & Co. evidently prospered. William Grant, writing under the date of March 12, 1761, says, 'Robert Grant has thoughts of going soon of North America.... He has finished a new contract for the Navie in North America'; and on January 17, 1767, he writes 'Robert Grant's contracts turn out extremely well as does the two I have got in my own name.' The only fly in the ointment was the unwillingness of William Grant of St Roch to pay his just debts to the firm which had sent him out to Canada, or at any rate backed him. It was decided to send William Grant, the letter writer, out to America to collect the debts owing to the firm; and on November 15, 1767, Robert Grant of London wrote to William Grant's father, Grant of Tammore, 'Your son has been pretty successful in collecting the debts. He has met with little trouble but from William Grant, and was in hopes to get security for most of what he owes us. He will be obliged to return there in the spring, as the people owing us there, particularly William Grant, pays less attention to their words, character, and credit, than the worst thief you ever knew in the Highlands of Scotland.' When William Grant the letter-writer, returned to Canada in the spring of 1768, he wrote to his father from Montreal on May 27:
'I am sorry I must confirm what Robt. Grant has wrote you with regaird to Wm. Grant, were I to give you a full history of his conduct since I came here it would take up severall sheets and would hardly meet with credite. I have at last got matters refered to arbitration and am not affraid of getting justice tho he has showen great dexterity and cleverness in preventing it so long by stoutly asserting ofring [sic] to swear to Five thousand pounds Errors and impositions in our accounts settled and signed by himself and John Gray and insisting on us proving every artickle since the beginning of 1762 as if accounts had never been settled...However I have got an award for upwards of L6,000 Str. besides what remittances I got last year, I would now get a final ward for the whole but the arbitrators chouse to wait for some further proofs we have at London. Meantime the artickles in dispute are reduced to a very few hundred pounds and I am fully convinced there will not
be an error of five pounds in all out accounts which will amount to above L80,000 and that as I hope and believe he is able I will by Dec. next make him willing to pay his just debts. Tho' I ofered him a present of L500 rather than have this dispute with him... I shall only further add on this disagreeable subject that all honest men even his best friends here greatly disapprove of his conduct in this affair...' "

from Grants in Canada by W.S.Wallace, posted on Rootsweb ^{2 3}