GRANT, Cuthbert elder, partner of Northwest Fur Company ¹

  General Notes:

"I have been using to do further searches on my Grant ancestors in Scotland. My Canadian gateway ancestor was Cuthbert Grant Sr. (d. 1799) partner of the Northwest Fur Company. All Canadian historical sources state he had a brother Robert who retired from the fur trade earlier that decade and returned to Scotland."

from Rootsweb entry by Phil Moody

'Before his death (that of Charles Grant died Quebec 1784, son of James Grant), however, he was apparently instrumental in introducing some of his relatives into the Western fur-trade. His cousin, Robert Grant, son of David Grant of Lethendry, went to the West in 1778, and was one of the partners in the North West Company formed in 1779. He is reputed to have built Fort Esperance on the Qu'Appelle River in 1787; and he retired from the fur-trade in 1793 with a "handsome competency", and returned to Scotland. Here he bought the family estate of Kincorth, married, had five children, and died in 1801. His grand-daughter, Miss Evelyn Grant, of Nairn, Scotland, tells me that his tombstone in Cromdale churchyard describes him as "one of the original members of the North West Company of Canada." It seems certain also that Robert Grant's brother Cuthbert followed him into the service of the North West Company, became a partner about 1795, and died at Kaministikwia in 1799. About this identification I was for a time in some doubt. Robert Grant the Nor'-Wester, undoubtedly had a brother who was "a merchant in Canada"; but the trouble was that there were at least two other Cuthbert Grants in Canada at the same time. One of these was a merchant of Quebec who died in 1793; and the other was a merchant of Three Rivers, whose property in that place was sold by the sheriff in 1806. (It is a strange fact that, whereas the name Cuthbert is almost unknown among the Grants in Scotland, there should have been three of the name in Canada contemporaneously.) I have recently ascertained, however, that Cuthbert Grant of Quebec was the son of John Grant, Coppersmith of Inverness, and his wife Naomi Cuthbert;and I have evidence showing that Cuthbert Grant of Three Rivers was connected with William Grant of Three Rivers, about whom more anon. It may therefore be taken as a practical certainty that Cuthbert Grant the Nor'-Wester was the brother of Robert Grant the Nor'-Wester.'

from William Grant of Carron ^{1 2}

Cuthbert married.