A rich family album compiled by Lucy Gwendoline Duff, grand daughter of the Rev James Grant, in the early 20th century preserving family documents, printed obituaries and tributes and a fine selection of photographs which together trace the achievements and history of the Grant family dating, back to the mid 1700s in the Glenbuchat, Badenoch and Towie ares of Aberdeenshire. Much of the album is dedicated to the line of the Rev. James Grant 1822 -1902, (great grandson of the Laird and Miss Oliphant), a native of Towie, Aberdeenshire, a graduate of Aberdeen University in 1840 and later minister at Dunoon in 1846 and then Ordiquhill. The Rev. Grant married Katherine Stewart Forbes Watson and they went on to have 9 children listed on the family tree and 5 grandchildren.
A hand drawn family tree contains c.45 family names beginning with the Grant and Gordon families who united in the early 1700s through the marriage of the Laird of Tullachgorum of Badenoch (a Grant) and Miss Oliphant of Auchavaich Glenbuchat (a Gordon).
Seemingly compiled by a grand daughter of the Rev. Grant (Lucy Gwendoline Duff), the album provides rich detail revealing the lives of further member of the family and recording the geographical spread of the family throughout Old Morlich, Banff, Ordiquhill, Fordyce, Banchory, Colinton, Edinburgh, America (John Grant b.1759, ‘went to America maybe father of General Grant’) and later Manchester and London. The stories of many family members include those of the Rev. James Grant’s sons John Forbes Watson Grant and Lachlan Gordon Duff Grant and many of the women in the family including his grand daughter Lucy Gwendoline Duff. To the rear of the album a delightful collection of 14 responses to a Book Of Tastes set of questions include answers by Nelli C S Grant and Mary C Grant both dated 1897.
DESCRIPTION: Original half morocco album, slightly rubbed in very good condition. Contents clean and legible. Laid in and pasted in ephemera. 69pp. excluding blanks.Ephemera and 13 photographs pasted and laid in includes:
INDIVIDUAL ITEMS INCLUDE:
1. A handwritten list of the family names and dates of birth of the Rev. James Grant’s father and his aunts and uncles born between 1748 - 1765. Written in a contemporary hand.
2. A handwritten record of the Rev. James Grant’s parents Robert Grant (1763 - 1838) and Isobel Ross (1782 -1849) and his 3 siblings, William, Isobel and Robert. Written in a contemporary hand.
3. A double page family tree dating 1748 - 1895 listing c 45 family members.
4. An ornately designed family register document recording the children born to Rev. James Grant, Minister of Old iquhill and Katherine F Watson naming seven children born between 1849 - 1860.
5. A full page supplement to the Banffshire Journal, April 14 1896 depicting the Rev James Grant M.A. D.D. Minister of Parish of Fordyce.
6. A hand written 3 pp. biography of the life of the Rev. James Grant.
7. Numerous paper cuttings recording the career achievements of the Rev. James Grant.
8. A booklet reprinted from the Banffshire Journal of January 8th 1895 honouring Dr and Mrs Grant.
9. Paper cuttings recording the Ministerial Jubilee and obituary of the Rev. R. Grant of Stracathro (Rev. James Grant’s brother). Dated Dec. 24th 1901.
10. A memorial text and paper cuttings celebrating the work of Caroline Stuart Grant 1856 - 1930 (the daughter of Rev. James Grant).
11. Magazine cutting celebrating the life of the late Dr T.A. Stewart (1846 - 1904) HM Chief Inspector of Schools IN Scotland. ( Married to the Rev. James Grant’s daughter Katherine.
12. Death notices for family members including Duff Grant of Kensington Mansions, Earls Court.
13. A contemporary handwritten Banns of marriage and handwritten account of the marriage in 1819 between George Watson Castletown of Braemar and Jane Mc Hardy daughter of Findlat Mc Hardy farmer. ( The mother and father of Katherine Forbes Watson).
14. A handwritten character reference for George Watson in the hand of Hirom Watson Elder dated Braemar July 27th 1820.
15. An obituary and an In Memoriam for Dr John Forbes Watson dated 1892, an ex East India Company employee and researcher of the influence of food and climate on the human body. (son of Rev James Grant and Katherine Stewart Forbes Watson).
16. A hand written letter outlining the career of Rev. John Forbes Watson Grant MA of St Stephen’s Parish Edinburgh, an alumni of the Aberdeen Department of Philosophy in 1877.
17. A handwritten will and testament by Robert Grant 1763 -1838 (father of Rev James Grant )naming his wife Isobel Ross and son William Grant as his sole executors.
18. A handwritten last will and testament of Isobel Ross Grant dated 1849 and a a pen portrait of Lachlan Gordon Duff Grant son of Rev James Grant).
19. A studio photograph of Helen K Grant aged 6 and a half months marked to rear ‘Uncle John’s elder daughter’.
20. Aberdeenshire studio portrait titled ‘ my grandmother on my father’s side of the family’.
21. Nellie and May Grant taken by George Shaw Art Studios, Edinburgh.
22. Photograph of ‘Mother 1917’
23. Photograph of ‘Auntie Katie (daddy’s sister and her husband Tom Stewart) on their presentation to King Edward VII and Queen Alexandria at Holyrood House’.
24. ‘Uncle Tom Stewart and his wife Katherine’.
22. Photograph of ‘My grandfather the Rev James Grant’.
23. Photograph of ‘Daddy’s elder sister Aunt Katie’.
24. Photograph of ‘My father Lachlan Gordon Duff Grant’.
25. Photographh of the probable compiler of the album, Lucy Gwendoline Duff, daughter of Lachlan Gordon Duff and grand daughter of Rev Jmaes Grant who was Lady Superintendant of nurses of Manchester Royal Infirmary and is photographed in her nursing uniform.
26. Photograph of ‘Mother’.
27. Family portrait ‘at Ellengowan’.
