GRANT, John younger, of Blairfindy ^{1 2 3 4}

   User ID: F982.

John married Helen FORBES, daughter of John FORBES of Invernettie, Belnabodach and Ledmacoy and Unnamed BROWN.¹ (Helen FORBES was born about 1661.)

  Marriage Notes:

"(John Forbes who owned Invernettie, Belnabodach and Ledmacoy had nine daughters) .... (4) Helen (Forbes), married John Grant of Blairfindy."

from House of Forbes ¹

John next married Helen ANDERSON, daughter of William ANDERSON 'sometime of Glencarvie' and Helen INNES, on 6 July 1703 in Strathdon parish, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.² (Helen ANDERSON was baptised on 30 August 1685 in Strathdon parish, Aberdeenshire, Scotland ⁵.)

  Marriage Notes:

"ANDERSON
HELEN
JOHN GRANT/FR187 (FR187)
06/07/1703
240/ 10 341
Strathdon and Corgarff"

from Index of Marriages



Old Parish Registers
Strathdon parish Aberdeenshire
Marriages

"May 22 - John Grant younger of Blerfindy in the parish of Inveravon and helen Anderson daughter to the deceist Wm Anderson of Glencarvie were booked & married 6 July 1703"





"Other holders of Blairfindy during the 17th century, presumably tenants of Huntly, included Thomas Grant and his wife Katherine Forbes in 1617, their son Thomas in 1654, John Grant and his wife Catherine Gordon, another William Grant, and two other John Grants, one of which was married to Helen Anderson and documented in a sasine in 1702. It is not known if all these Grants were descendants of the original William Grant who held Blairfindy or if they were even related."

from The Grants in Blairfindy

Note:

The last sentence of this extract is sweeping. "It is not known" may simply mean, in this context, that there is a serious lack of documented evidence for relationships and dates available to the modern researcher, possibly linked to the loss of ownership of land. Had the Grants of Blairfindy been totally unrelated through generations, this in itself might surely have been noted somewhere in the tradition. For the most part, they were Roman Catholic and associated with other Roman Catholics at a time when this was becoming a dangerous position to be in.

The author comments further on:

"It is known, however, that the Grants in Glenlivet continued their staunch adherence to the Roman Catholic faith long after their clansmen in Strathspey had embraced the Protestant Reformation. Moreover, they were equally loyal to Prince Charles Edward Stuart and generally supported him during the 1745 rebellion."




"The Jacobite family of Blairfindy, of which Margaret's father was the youngest son, was indeed notable. Now landless, by lairdly standards it had also been miserably poor. Alexander's father, John Grant of Blairfindy, having lost his home to fire in 1735, was said in 1738 to have had difficulty enough just in feeding his family. Yet Alexander had some grand, subversive connections. According to the Grant of Blairfindy pedigree, recorded at the Lyon Office in 1778, Alexander's mother, Helen Anderson, was a granddaughter of that ardent royalist, Sir Alexander Irvine of Drum (d. 1657)."

from Mergers in Messengery< ^{2 3 6}