Author: Grant, Anne
Biography:
GRANT, Anne formerly Macvicar (1755-1838: ODNB)
She was born on 22 Feb. 1755 at Glasgow, the daughter of Duncan Macvicar, a farmer and soldier, and his wife Kathrine McKinzie. She was baptised at the Associate Session (non-conformist) church on 23 Feb. In 1757 her father obtained a commission in the 77th foot regiment and travelled to America where his wife and daughter soon joined him. Grant was educated by her mother and a Madame Schulyer, a family friend. Although her father purchased land in Vermont in 1765, the family returned to Scotland three years later and, after the War of Independence, the land was confiscated. She married James Grant on 29 May 1779 in Laggan, Inverness-shire. Her husband was the military chaplain at Fort Augustus and became minister at Laggan. The couple had twelve children although just eight were alive at the time of their father’s death on 2 Dec. 1801. Grant’s precarious financial situation as a widow on a limited military pension led her to publish her poems with the assistance of a friend, George Thomson, who also applied to the RLF on her behalf; she was awarded £20. The poems proved popular and Grant published other works including Letters from the Mountains (1807), Memoirs of an American Lady (1809), and Essays on the Superstitions of the Highlands (1811). Her success took her to Edinburgh where she became acquainted with many literary men and women and enjoyed celebrity status in her own right. She corresponded with Walter Scott (q.v.) and was one of the first to identify him as the author of the anonymously published Waverley in 1814. Her published correspondence and memoirs are full of sharply perceptive observations of people and books. She died at Edinburgh on 7 Nov. 1838, survived by just one of her children. There is a memorial to her in St. Cuthbert's cemetery in Edinburgh and in the churchyard at Laggan. (ODNB 12 Feb. 2019; ancestry.co.uk 6 Feb. 2025; Millgate; RLF file 150) SR
Other Names:
- Mrs. Anne Grant
- Mrs. Grant