GRANT, Jonet ^{1 2}

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  Research Notes:

JANET (JONETA) GRANT

INTRODUCTION

There is a lack of clarity, precision and agreement about who is the father of Janet Grant, wife of Alexander Gordon, laird of Strathavon (or Strathdoun) and later 1st laird of Cluny. Here is a sample from primary and secondary sources:

(1540) Great Seal of Scotland: "Alexander Gordon and Janet (Joneta) Grant his wife" (The two Grant witnesses to this latter document were named as "Joh. Grant de Culcabok, Joh. Grant in (de) Ballindalloch". House of Gordon: Balbithan MS: "Alexander, the first Laird of Strathawen married the Laird of Grant's daughter"

House of Gordon: Lesmoir article: "Alexander Gordon, laird of Cluny, having married Janet Grant, daughter of Freuchie"

The Caterans of Inveravon: "Alexander Gordon of Strathaven and I of Cluny married the younger daughter either of John Grant of Grant or of James Grant of Freuchie"

Scots Peerage (vol 4): "Alexander Gordon ....married Janet Grant and had issue"

Scots Peerage (vol 7): "Janet Grant, who was married to Alexander Gordon of Strathavon, is claimed as a daughter of James Grant of Freuchie, but there is good reason for believing she was a daughter or sister of John Grant of Ballindalloch"

Chiefs of Grant; (under James Grant 3rd of Freuchie) "A daughter married to Alexander Gordon of Strathavon" (Another daughter is named Janet and married to two other husbands: Alexander Sutherland and James Dempster)

Rulers of Strathspey: "A Janet Grant was married to Alexander Gordon, Laird of Strathavon. She is said to be the youngest daughter of John Grant of Freuchie and Elizabeth Forbes, John Grant being evidently a clerical error for James Grant" thegordonproject.com: "the youngest daughter of John Grant of Grant."

stirnet.com: "daughter of John (or James) Grant"


WHAT DO THE SOURCES TELL US?

Some points are salient in the above quotations.

1 Grant of Freuchie is noticeably pre-eminent as the possible family of origin of Janet Grant. Ballindalloch is suggested as a possibility.

2 There is noticeable uncertainty about whether father of Janet was named John or James.

3 The designation John Grant of Grant is cited by some


DISCUSSION

The possible association with the Ballindalloch Grants may arise from the names of the Grant witnesses in the Great Seal document. Indeed, that document is the primary clue to who Janet might be. Mysteriously, its text does not state her father's name.

In the Latin text of the document, "Joh. Grant de Culcabok, Joh. Grant in (de) Ballindalloch" are the only Grants named in the witness list. Both men were of the Freuchie family: John Grant of Culcabock (c1490-1548) was the natural son of John Grant 2nd of Freuchie (c1460-1528). He was not the son of Margaret Ogilvy, and is also known as John Grant of Glenmoriston or 'Ian Mor'. John Grant of Ballindalloch (1502-1559) was the nephew of John Grant 2nd of Freuchie, the son of John's brother Patrick. John Grant of Culcabock's daughter, Isabella, was the wife of this John Grant of Ballindalloch.

Chiefs of Grant identifies the wife of Alexander Gordon as the daughter of James Grant 3rd of Freuchie (c1487-1553). It does not name her. It cites another daughter named Janet who was twice married. It clearly wants to identify the wife of Alexander Gordon with the Freuchie line, yet her name is absent, clashing as it does with another daughter of the same family, even though the Great Seal document does clearly name Alexander Gordon's spouse her as Janet Grant. Thus it seems James Grant of Freuchie may be set aside as Janet's father.

So, if that James, 3rd of Freuchie, is set aside, but Alexander Gordon's wife is linked to Freuchie, who else might be her father?

The Balbithan MS states she was "the Laird of Grant's daughter". The Lesmoir article calls her "daughter of Freuchie". The Caterans of Inveravon and thegordonproject.com speak of her as being a younger or youngest daughter of "John Grant of Grant".

Now, who was John Grant of Grant?

In its Introduction, Chiefs of Grant explains:

"The title of Grants of Freuchie, with the occasional local designation of Lairds of Grant, continued in the family for ten generations, from 1450 to 1694, when Ludovick Grant, the ' Highland King,' having obtained a Crown charter erecting his lands into the regality of Grant, dropped the territorial designation of Freuchie, and adopted that of Grant of Grant, by which his descendants continued to be known until they succeeded to the title and dignity of Earl of Seafield. (xxii)"

John Grant of Grant, by the above explanation, was in effect John Grant 2nd of Freuchie. This would support the phrase the Balbithan MS uses, describing Janet as "the Laird of Grant's daughter." John Grant 2nd of Freuchie lived until 1528, so he was not alive when the 1540 Great Seal document names Alexander Gordon's wife as Janet Grant.

That document did not name Janet's father in any way. Such lack of information in early bureaucracy may indicate a silence that is preferable to stating a more embarrassing fact, for example when a party named in the document is illegitimate. This may be the case with Janet.

An official state document does not specify her father, and in only one of the sources is a mother named for Janet: Elizabeth Forbes, who, in that source, is erroneously called the wife of John Grant, when she was in fact the wife of James Grant 3rd of Freuchie.

One of the Grant witnesses, John Grant of Culcabock, was himself an illegitimate son of John Grant 2nd of Freuchie, and the other Grant witness was his son-in-law. There was no witness from the legitimate line of Freuchie present.

Taken together, these facts may point to Janet being the daughter of John Grant 2nd of Freuchie, but not by his wife. The indications, from what is present and what is absent in the Great Seal document, is that she was the full sister or half-sister of John Grant of Culcabock, that is an illegitimate daughter of John Grant of 2nd of Freuchie.

The chronology does not contradict this. There are reasons for believing that Janet Grant was more likely of the same generation as James Grant 3rd of Freuchie, rather the generation after him, and that she was born too early to be the daughter of John Grant of Ballindalloch.

For example, referring to the marriage of Margaret Gordon, Janet's daughter, Scots Peerage (vol 4) says

"He (George Abercromby) married, first, Christina Barclay ; and secondly, before 29 October 1533, when he had with her a charter of the lands of Over and Nether Clune, co. Banff, Margaret Gordon."

If Janet's daughter was being married in 1533, and in entry 1337 the Great Seal confirms Margaret Gordon was the wife of George Abercromby by January 1533(1534), then Margaret's mother, Janet, must have been born at the latest by the very early 1500s, and probably earlier. This is consistent with the age of Alexander Gordon, her husband.


CONCLUSION

Based on the points discussed, we may conclude that it is more likely than not that the wife of Alexander Gordon of Strathavon, later of Cluny, Janet Grant, was an illegitimate daughter of John Grant 2nd of Freuchie and his unnamed partner, and that she was born between about 1490 and 1503. ^{3 4 5}

Jonet married Alexander GORDON 1st of Strathavon (Stra'an), and 1st of Cluny (of the First House), son of Alexander GORDON 3rd Earl of Huntly and Jean STEWART.^{1 2} (Alexander GORDON 1st of Strathavon (Stra'an), and 1st of Cluny (of the First House) was born about 1495 and died in 1568 in Drumin Castle, Inveravon, Banffshire, Scotland.)

  Marriage Notes:

"A.D. 1540.] [28 Jac. V.

2248. Apud Falkland, 21 Dec. REX confirmavit cartam Georgii com. de Huntlie, dom. de Gordoun et Baidyenach, - [qua concessit patruo suo ALEXANDRO GORDOUn seniori, olim de Strathowne, et JONETE GRANT ejus conjugi, et eorum alter! diutius viventi in libero tenemento, et ALEXANDRO GORDOUN juniori, eorum filio, hereditarie, - terras dominicales lie Manis de Cluny, et lie bog earundem Bonzeauchbog nuncupat., terras de Parkhill cum lie boggis et silva Parkwod nuncupat., molendinum de Cluny, terras de Skipparty, Litill Sauquhyne et molendinum earundem, terras de Tulymare cum lie boggis, et Cragerne, cum piscariis et manerie de Cluny, ac cum communi pastura catallis et animalibus tenentium et occupatorum dict, terrarum infra forestam de Corryne et ubique per eandem, in baronia sua de Cluny, vic. Abirdene ; - in excambium pro terris dicti Alex, senioris de Strathowne, Inverroureis, Fotterlettir, fortalicio de Drummyne, molendinis, piscariis, et advocatione beneficiorum, capellaniarum et altaragiorum earundem, vic. Banff ; et terris de Cabrach, vic. Abirdene; - secundum tenorem contractus de data apud Dunde 31 Aug. 1539, in libris concilii regis registrat. 4 Sept. 1539 etc"

from The Great Seal




"The said Alexander (Gordon) first Laird of Strathawen married the Laird of Grants Daughter with whom he begat two sons and four daughters, his eldest son Alexander, heir of Strathawen, and John Gordon. His eldest daughter married the Laird of Altar Cumming, one married the Laird of Pitsligo Forbes, one married Pat. Gordon Goodman of Oxhill, the 4th daughter married Andrew Halyburton of Drummoys."

from Balbithan MS




"Alexander Gordon of Strathaven and I of Cluny married the younger daughter either of John Grant of Grant or of James Grant of Freuchie"

from The Caterans of Inveravon




"A daughter (of James Grant), married to Alexander Gordon of Strathavon."

from Chiefs of Grant




"The first laird of Lesmoir got as his earliest possession, Fotherletter in Strathaven, possibly about the same time that Alexander Gordon, third son of the third Earl of Huntly, got Strathaven from his father; and there was a close intimacy and some intermarriages between the families of Cluny and Lesmoir for some generations, as also sundry transactions about land. In 1539 Alexander Gordon, laird of Cluny, having married Janet Grant, daughter of Freuchie, consented to give the lands of Strathaven, Fotherletter, etc., in exchange for Mains oi Cluny, etc., obtaining a charter of the latter from Huntly. Ten years later Alexander, with consent of Janet Grant, his spouse, sold to James Gordon of Lesmoir the lands of Little Coldstone and Achnarren, and granted in warrandice the sunn)' half of Tullicarn in the barony of Cluny. Their descendants had transactions in 1O07 about an excambion of lands of Coldstone for lands of* Corvechin and others in Drumblade."

from Lesmoir




"A Janet Grant was married to Alexander Gordon, Laird of Strathavon. She is said to be the youngest daughter of John Grant of Freuchie and Elizabeth Forbes, John Grant being evidently a clerical error for James Grant. In the Gordon Papers we find a Bond by Alexander Gordon of Strathavon, dated at Elgin, 5th November, 1539, which talks of 'Janet Grant my spouse and Alexander our son.' John the Grant of Culcabok and John the Grant of Ballindalloch are among the witnesses, and there is good reason for believing she was a daughter or sister of John Grant of Ballindalloch."

from Rulers of Strathspey




"Alexander (Gordon) of Strathoun. In 1539 he excambed Strathoun with his nephew, the fourth Earl, for the lands of Cluny, and from him are descended the Gordons of Cluny. He married Janet Grant, and had issue."

from Scots Peerage (vol 4)




"Janet Grant, who was married to Alexander Gordon of Strathavon, is claimed as a daughter of James Grant of Freuchie, but there is good reason for believing she was a daughter or sister of John Grant of Ballindalloch (see Note below)."

from Scots Peerage (vol 7)

Note:

See Research Notes in this file on 'Janet (Joneta) Grant'. ^{1 2 6 7 8 9}