GRANT, Peter RC Priest 'Abbé Grant', Reverend Mr ¹

   Another name for Peter was GRANT, the agent of the Scotch mission at Rome, Abbate.³

   User ID: N79.

  General Notes:

"ROME REGISTER. 1726.

273. 1 6 Jan Petrus Grant, filius D. Joannis Grant Dni de Blairfindie et D. Helenae Anderson Catholicorum, Dioec. Moraviensis, natus die 15 Augusti 1708, baptizatus et confirmatus. Emisit Juramentum die 25 Julii 1726. Die 13 Martii discessit ad Missionem quarto Theologiae anno absolute iam Sacerdos 1735- Mortuus Roma ubi diu agebat procuratoris munus pro missionibus Scotiae. [1 Sept. 1784.]"

from Records of the Scots Colleges




"Grant was born in the diocese of Moray, a member of the Grant family of Blairfind in Glenlivet. He was a Gaelic speaker. He entered the Scotch College at Rome in 1726, and returned to Scotland as a priest in 1735. He was sent to the mission at Glengarry. There he remained until 1737, when, after the murder of the Scottish Catholic Mission's Roman agent Stuart, he was appointed to fill that office. In Rome he occupied apartments in the Piazza di Navona.

He became valued as a well-connected contact by British travellers visiting Rome, and rendered them many services. Although widely regarded as a Jacobite, he secured the patronage as cicerone of influential visitors, including William Beckford, Lord Shelburne, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Sir James Grant and Lord Hope. He also acted as chaperone to Catherine Read and Anne Forbes. For a long period hardly any British subject of distinction visited Rome without being provided with letters of introduction to the Abbé Grant. Clement XIV was very fond of him, and intended to create him a Cardinal; but died before taking steps.

from Wikipedia




"Abbe Grant was one of the family of Grant of Blairfindy. In June 1765, he wrote to Mr. Grant on behalf of his brothers, James and Alexander Grant, who leased Blairfindy from the Duke of Gordon. He also had a nephew a colonel in the French service, who took the title of Baron Blairfindy."

from Chiefs of Grant




"The death of Mr. Robert Grant, the Rector of Douai College, was a severe shock to his brother, the Abbate, agent of the Scotch Mission at Rome. [....] The Abbate was in poor health when he arrived at Rome. Notwithstanding, instead of resting, as he would have required to do, after the fatigue of his journey and the trials he had experienced, he imme diately began to visit his numerous friends. The consequence of this imprudence was a severe attack of dysentery and inflammation, which defied all remedies, and caused his death in the 74th year of his age (September 1st.) [....] He was buried in the parish church of Piazza Navona ; and a mural monument in marble was erected to his memory in the church of the Scotch College by his intimate friends, the Earl of Bute and the Earl's brother, James Stewart McKenzie, at the time, Lord Privy Seal. It will not be denied that the urbane manners and obliging disposition of the agent, Abbate Grant were highly advantageous to Scotland. Many Englishmen of distinction, both Catholic and Protestant, were favourably impressed, and thought better of Scotland and the remnant of its ruined church, for the kind attention extended to them by the Abbate Grant, He was an honourable man, and an honour as well as an ornament to his country. He enjoyed, and most deservedly, throughout his forty-five years of office, the esteem and regard of the Bishops of Scot land. He was, also, in high favour with Pope: Clement XIV., and would probably have been raised to the dignity of Cardinal if that Pontiff had lived. Can we then honour too much the memory of the man who served his country so well, by discharging faithfully, and with credit, the duties of his office for nearly half a century ; and who finally died at his post?"

from The Catholics of Scotland (vol 2) ^{1 2 4 5}

  Research Notes:

AGENT

In the hundred years or so after the Scottish Reformation the activities of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, including anyone practising that faith, were legally restricted by successive Acts of the Parliament of Scotland. This resulted in the Roman Catholic Church becoming seriously disorganised, considerably poorer than before and being left with few native priests. Part of its programme to survive and recover, from mid-17th century, was the appointment of an 'agent', a Scottish priest, resident in Rome, whose purpose and function was to deal on a face to face basis with the Cardinal Protector and Propaganda Fide (now known as Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) in order to represent his native country and its particular needs and requirements. ⁶