Author: Grant, James
Biography:
GRANT, James (d 1785: “Biographical Notice”)
He was likely born at Edinburgh in the early eighteenth century, but the exact details are unknown. He was apprenticed to an ironmonger and subsequently owned his own business located at the West Bow, Edinburgh. He married in 1731 (wife’s name unknown) and had several children. After his wife’s death in 1771, he married Alison Plenderleath, daughter of the Rev. Plenderleath of the Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh. In the 1740s and 1750s, he served as treasurer to the Edinburgh City Council, as a bailie in the Edinburgh magistracy, and as Dean of Guild. He belonged to the congregation of the Tolbooth Church, and took a special interest in Edinburgh’s Orphan Hospital, to which the proceeds from the sale of his book were donated. The third edition of his book makes reference to a second of 1820, but no copy of this edition has been located. (ancestry.co.uk 5 Feb. 2019; “Biographical Notice,” Original Hymns and Poems [1862]) SR