GRANT, John of Kincardine O'Neil ^{1 2}

   Another name for John was GRANT, James.³

   User ID: L712.

  General Notes:

"Sacred to the memory of
JOHN GRANT Esq of Kincardine O'Neil
Died 9 May 1799 aged 63"

from gravestone in Kincardine O'Neil Kirkyard ⁴

  Research Notes:

NOTES FROM A CORRESPONDENT

A correspondent, Peter de Loriol, sent to Patrick's People webmaster some notes he has acquired over time about John Grant of Kincardine O'Neil. Among the notes we read:

"Little is known of John Grant except that his father spent his life in hiding after the 1745 rebellion and the child spent his childhood in relative poverty. James Grant Duff compared notes with Charles Grant, later Baron Glenelg on their relative ancestries, both came to the conclusion that they were quite closely connected. How remains to be discovered! (PG de Loriol)"

and

"5/2016 - Further research reveals that there are two candidates for the parents of John Grant, both named James, both of the Shewglie line. 14/07/2023 - DNA has finally solved the parentage of John Grant, shewing him to be a cousin of his future wife several times over."

Peter de Loriol also suggests George Grant (1709-1789), minister of Boharm parish, as a possible father of John Grant, backed up, he says, by DNA. De Loriol sees John as George Grant's eldest son and states that George Grant was an ardent Jacobite, and that this stood in the way of preferment.

Peter de Loriol does not give sources for these statements. This makes it difficult to evaluate them. However, there may be a core of truth in the suggestion that John Grant was of the Sheuglie family and therefore seriously affected in early life by Jacobite involvement of family; several of the Sheuglie Grants were in that situation. If this were so then Charles Grant and James Grant Duff would be related. ⁵

John married Margaret MILN, daughter of James MILN Merchant in Norway and Jean GORDON.¹ (Margaret MILN was born about 1757 ^{1 2} and died on 20 August 1824 in Eden, King Edward, parish, Aberdeenshire, Scotland ².)

  Marriage Notes:

"He (William Gordon 'of Eden') was succeeded by Margaret, daughter of his eldest sister Jean, who had married James Miln, grandson of James Duff of Corsindae. This Margaret Miln was fifty-five at the time of succeeding, 'a handsome and accomplished woman.' She had been married many years before to John Grant of Kincardine O'Neil (died 1799), by whom she had had a large family:

1. Margaret, born 1777; married, 1813, James Allen; died 1818; buried in Banff.

2. Jane, born 1778 ; died unmarried, in 1857 ; buried in Banff.

3. Helen, born 1781 ; married, first, Duncan ; secondly. Colonel Grant of Woodside, Elgin.

4. James, born 1789, of whom presently.

5. Thomas, died unmarried.

G. Elizabeth, married Rev. Alexander Walker of Elgin and Urquhart, one of whose sons married one of the Duffs of Elgin (see chapter xxix.), and another married one of the Gordons of Park (see chapter xxv.).

Mrs. Margaret Miln Grant assumed the name of Duff (from her great-grandmother and great-grand-uncle), and went to reside at Eden, where she died and was buried in 1824."

from Book of the Duffs




"She (Margaret Miln) had married John Grant of Kincardine O'Neil (he died 9th May, 1799, aged 63, and is buried at Kincardine O'Neil), who erected the mansion-house, and did much in the way of planting and beautifying that Deeside estate. Mrs Grant, on succeeding to Eden, adopted the surname of Duff, and, dying at Eden on 20th August, 1824, was interred in the private family mausoleum within the old church of King-Edward.

Two white marble tablets therein bear the following respective inscriptions -

(1). In the hope of a blessed resurrection here rest the remains,

1. Of Mrs Grant Duff of Eden, relict of John Grant, Esq. of Kincardine O'Neil (first resident proprietor and third possessor of the estate of Eden under an entail executed by her grand uncle, William Duff Esq. of Braco, A.D. 1713 in favor of heirs male and female), died at Eden 20th August, 1824, aged 67."

from Aberdeenshire Epitaphs ¹