GRANT. 



499 



In 1798, he was appointed chief justice of Ches- 

 ter ; in 1799, he succeeded the late lord Redesdale 

 as solicitor-general, and was of course knighted ; 

 and on the 20th of May 1801, in consequence of 

 the promotion of Sir Pepper Arden to be chief 

 justice of the common pleas, he was nominated 

 master of the rolls. During the whole of this 

 period, he continued to render essential service to 

 Mr Pitt and his administration in the House of 

 Commons ; remaining member for Banff until the 

 dissolution of 1812. As a politician, however, no 

 personality disgraced his attacks, no venom em- 

 bittered his arguments. During a period of up- 

 wards of sixteen years he filled the judicial chair 

 in the rolls court with undiminished credit. At 

 length he became anxious to retire while still in 

 the full possession of his faculties. This purpose 

 he carried into effect in the latter end of 1817, 

 from which period he appeared little in public life. 



During his latter years he lived chiefly at Bar- 

 ton house, Dawlish, the residence of his sister, the 

 widow of admiral Schanck ; and at that place he 

 died, on the 25th of May, 1832. He never 

 married. 



The late Mr Charles Butler, in his " Reminis- 

 cences," speaks of Sir William Grant in the fol- 

 lowing terms: " The most perfect model of judi- 

 cial eloquence which has come under the observa- 

 tion of the Reminiscent, is that of Sir William 

 Grant. In hearing him, it was impossible not to 

 think of the character given of Menelaus by Homer, 

 or rather by Pope, that 



4 He spoke no more than just the thing he ought.' 

 But Sir William did much more: in decompound- 

 ing and analysing an immense mass of confused antl 

 Contradictory matter, and forming clear and un- 

 questionable results, the sight of his mind was in- 

 finite. His exposition of facts, and of the conse- 

 quences deducible from them, his discussion of 

 former decisions, and showing their legitimate 

 weight and authority, and their real bearings upon 

 the point in question, were above praise ; but 

 the whole was done with such admirable ease and 

 simplicity, that while real judges felt its supreme 

 excellence, the herd of learners believed that 

 they should have done the same. Never was 

 the merit of Dr Johnson's definition of a per- 

 fect Style, ' proper words and proper places,' 

 more sensibly felt than it was by those who lis- 

 tened to Sir William Grant. The charm of it 

 was indescribable ; its effect on the hearers was 

 that which Milton describes, when he paints Adam 

 listening to the angel after the angel had ceased 

 to speak; often and often has the Reminiscent 

 beheld the bar listening, at the close of a judg- 

 ment given by Sir William, with the same feeling 

 of admiration at what they had heard, and the 

 same regret that it was heard no more." 



GRANT, Mas, of Laggan, was born at Glas- 

 gow in the year 1755. Her father, Mr M'Vicar, 

 was an officer in the British army, and on her mo- 

 ther's side she was descended from the ancient 

 family of Stewart of Invernahyle, in Argyllshire. 

 Shortly after her birth, her father accompanied his 

 regiment to America, under the auspices of the earl 

 of Eglinton, with the intention of settling there, 

 if he should find sufficient inducement for doing 

 so. His wife and infant daughter soon after joined 

 him. They landed at Charleston, and though the 

 child was then scarcely three years of age, she re- 

 tained ever after a distinct recollection of her arri- 

 val in America. During her residence in that 



country, she was taught by her mother to read, 

 and she never had any other instructor. But she 

 was so apt and diligent a scholar, that before her 

 sixth year she had perused the Old Testament, 

 with the contents of which she was well acquainted. 

 About the same age she also learned to speak 

 the Dutch language, in consequence of being do- 

 mesticated, for some time, with a family of Dutch 

 colonists in the state of New York. Soon after, 

 the sergeant of a Scottish regiment gave her the only 

 lessons in penmanship she ever received; and ob- 

 serving her love of reading, he presented her with 

 a copy of Blind Harry's " Wallace," which, by his 

 assistance, she was enabled to decyplier so fully as 

 not only to understand the dialect in which the 

 book was written, but also to admire the heroism 

 of Wallace and his compatriots, arid to glow with 

 that enthusiasm for Scotland, which, as she herself 

 expressed, ever after remained with her, as a prin- 

 ciple of life. Her fondness for reading was uni- 

 versally observed, and fortunately procured for 

 her, from an officer of her father's regiment, a copy 

 of Milton's Paradise Lost, which, young as she 

 was, she studied with much care, and which she 

 afterwards found to be an inestimable treasure. 

 To the diligent study of this book, Mrs Grant her- 

 self ascribed the formation of her character and 

 taste, observing that whatever she had of eleva- 

 tion of spirit, expansion of mind, or taste for the 

 sublime and beautiful, she owed it all to her famili- 

 arity with Milton. The effect of this became so 

 evident in her conversation and habits, as soon to 

 secure for her the notice of several of the most 

 eminent settlers in the state of New York, and in 

 particular to procure for her the friendship of the 

 celebrated Madame Schuyler, whose worth and 

 virtues Mrs Grant has extolled in her " Memoirs 

 of an American Lady." Mrs Grant's father had, 

 with the -view of permanently settling in America, 

 received a large grant of land, to which, by pur- 

 chase, he made several valuable additions ; but fal- 

 ling into bad health, he was advised to leave 

 America, which he did very hurriedly, and without* 

 having got his property disposed of. He returned 

 with his wife and daughter to Scotland about the 

 year 1768, and a few years afterwards he was ap- 

 pointed Barrack-Master of Fort-Augustus. Soon 

 after this the Revolutionary war broke out in 

 America, and before his landed property there 

 could be disposed of, it was confiscated, and thus 

 the chief means to which the family had to look 

 for their support were cut off. While her father 

 was Barrack-Master at Fort- Augustus, the office 

 of chaplain to the Fort was filled by the Rev. 

 James Grant, a young clergyman of accomplished 

 mind and manners, and connected with some of 

 the most respectable families in the neighbourhood. 

 Mr Grant was soon afterwards appointed minister 

 of the parish of Laggan, in Invernesshire, and in 

 the year 1779 he was united in marriage to the 

 subject of this notice. Of this marriage twelve 

 children were born, four of whom died in compara- 

 tively early years, and soon afterwards Mr Grant 

 himself was cut off, in 1801, leaving his widow 

 with a family of eight surviving children. 



Mrs Grant had always found delight in the pur- 

 suits of literature, and having early shown a taste 

 for poetry, she was occasionally accustomed, for 

 the entertainment of her friends, to write verses ; 

 and she also, by way of relaxation, carried on an 

 extensive correspondence with some of the friends 

 of her youth. Of her poems, which were gener- 



