GRANT, William of St. Roch, Deputy Receiver of Quebec, Hon. ²

  General Notes:

"...the Hon. William Grant of St. Roch, who was one of the first of the Clan to reach Canada, was Deputy Receiver of Quebec from 1777 to 1784, and a member of the Legislative Council. The latter through his marriage to the dowager Baroness de Longueuil, and his nephew's subsequent marriage with the Baroness, brought about the perpetuation of the only barony of the French regime that has been recognised by the British Crown..."

" 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."

from piece on Grants in Canada by W.S.Wallace, posted on Rootsweb


"A bright lad, possessed of a liberal education, he was engaged about 1756 by Robert Grant, a kinsman from the valley of the River Spey, Scotland, and the agent in Halifax, N.S., of naval supply contractors based in London, England; Robert soon formed his own firm in London. In the fall of 1759, having secured a contract to supply the navy at Quebec, he sent William, who was only 15 but fluent in French, to the province of Quebec as agent for his company, Alexander, Robert, and William Grant. "

"Grant quickly established agencies at Quebec and Montreal for his kinsman's firm. In 1763 he entered into partnership at Quebec with two other agents of the company, Peter Stuart and John Gray, and, in a context of economic instability, aggressively pursued various speculative opportunities. Among them were the supply of merchandise and the lending of capital to French and Canadian merchants obliged to rebuild their businesses. In September and October 1764, for example, he lent £750 to two Quebec merchants, most of which was drawn from the Grant firm. Like many other merchants, he also engaged in the fur trade."

"Grant's principal business activity in the 1760s was probably the acquisition of landed property, including some of the largest houses in Quebec and Montreal. Owners who had left the colony for France following the conquest had been given 18 months from the signing of the Treaty of Paris to dispose of their property and, operating in such a buyer's market, Grant invested heavily."

"By 1766, sustained by London credit, Grant was probably one of the leading British merchants at Quebec. His expenditures had brought him heavily into debt, but he received liberal extensions from the firm of Alexander, Robert, and William Grant toward an account evaluated at over £80,000 in 1768, a year after the London firm's dissolution. With "great dexterity and cleverness," he held out on any debt settlement and gained a notorious reputation in the mercantile community for his skilful manipulation of finances and commodity supply."

from Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online ^{2 3}

William married Marie Anne Catherine FLEURY Dowager Baroness de Longeuil in 1770.¹ (Marie Anne Catherine FLEURY Dowager Baroness de Longeuil was born about 1732 and died on 25 October 1818 ⁴.)