John Ogilvie-Grant, 7th Earl of Seafield
John Charles Ogilvy-Grant, 7th Earl of Seafield KT (4 September 1815 – 18 February 1881), styled Viscount Reidhaven from 1840 to 1853, was a Scottish nobleman. He is numbered as the 26th Chief of Clan Grant.[1]
Genealogy
John Charles was the third son of Francis William Ogilvy-Grant, 6th Earl of Seafield, and Mary Ann Dunn; and as a young man entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman. His older brothers having died, he succeeded his father as Earl of Seafield in 1853.[2] [3] [4] Unsuccessful in standing for election to the House of Commons in 1841,[5] from 1853 until 1858 he sat in the House of Lords as a Scottish Representative Peer. The latter year he was created Baron Strathspey, of Strathspey in the Counties of Inverness and Moray, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.[6] This title gave Seafield an automatic seat in the House of Lords. He was further honoured in 1879 when he was made a Knight of the Thistle.[7]
Lord Seafield married the Honourable Caroline Henrietta Stuart in 1850.[8] He died in February 1881, aged 65, and was buried next to his father at the mausoleum at Duthil Old Parish Church and Churchyard, at the centre of the parish of Duthil, Inverness-shire.[9] He was succeeded in his titles by his son Ian Charles Ogilvy-Grant.[10] [11] [12] Lady Seafield died in 1911.[13] [14]
As Proprietor
Looking back from 1911, Lord Cassilis summarised Lord Seafield's objective for his estates:[15]
He continued the work of his father in effecting extensive improvements on the estates, both in the way of new houses, steadings, roads, the reclamation of waste land, and in enlarging the extensive plantations the late earl had made.
Particularly noted by his contemporaries was Lord Seafield's development of pine woods of Scotch firs around Grantown and in the parishes of Abernethy and Duthil, extending to some 40,000 acres by 1884. A fir-nursery at Abernethy was said to contain three million young trees.[16] Patron of the Strathspey Farmers Society, Lord Seafield exhibited cattle at the annual Show at Grantown but, it was said, not for prizes, as the tenantry complained that otherwise it was of no use competing.[16] Lord Seafield commissioned the Hon. Thomas Charles Bruce M.P. to oversee a plan to improvement the profitability of the heavily indebted estates[17] he had inherited.[18] Carried into effect 1864-66, the scheme involved redistributing remaining common land between a network of small arable farms whose farm houses and offices would be let with the land; developing upper hill land for game sports; and further professional development of commercial forestry. Together with sponsorship of better communications via the developing railway system and the leasing of house sites in small villages, the scheme resulted in estate income being substantially increased.[19] At the 1883 hearings in Kingussie of the Napier Commission (the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Condition of Crofters and Cottars in the Highlands and Islands) Bruce represented the Seafield Estates and claimed that It was the express wish of the late Lord Seafield that none of his tenants should be removed in carrying out [the improvements].[20] Sir William Fraser also stated, in 1884, that:[21]
Lord Seafield, like his father, took a warm interest in the prosperity and happiness of his tenantry .... He did not like changes on his estates.
The Seafield Estates during the 7th Earl's time therefore continued the tradition of not enforcing any major programme of clearance or eviction from their lands, though this was disputed by the Church of Scotland minister of Duthil, the Rev. James Bain.[22] [23]
As Chief of Clan Grant
Lord Seafield took personal interest in sponsoring and attending an annual Highland Games held at Castle Grant. He and his family made a point of attending in full Highland dress.[24]
As illustrative of his love for Highland institutions, down even to the garb of old Gaul, at these gatherings Lord Seafield seldom failed to remind his countrymen how much he disliked their appearance in modern Lowland dress instead of the full Highland costume. His Lordship and the young chief invariably set the Clan an example in that respect.
His funeral, culminating at the Seafield Mausoleum in Duthil Churchyard, was accompanied by pipers:[8] a sorrowing clan mourning for their lost chief.[7]
As Laird o' Grant, Chief of the Clan, Grandly himself bore he - A leal true-hearted Highlandman Of noblest ancestry.
External Links
Clan Grant: http://www.clangrant.org
References
- ^ http://www.clangrant.org/index.aspx?pid=19 Accessed April 2017.
- ^ Fraser, Sir William (1884). Chiefs of Grant. Edinburgh. pp. 487–93.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) Accessed (2017) via archive.org. - ^ Cassillis, The Earl of (1911). The Rulers of Strathspey. Inverness: The Northern Counties Newspaper and Printing and Publishing Co. Ltd. pp. 164–67. Accessed (2017) via archive.org.
- ^ Strathspey, The Rt. Hon. Lord (1983). A History of Clan Grant. Chichester, Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd. pp. 42–3.
- ^ Fraser 1884, pp. 487.
- ^ Fraser 1884, pp. 487–88, 490.
- ^ a b Fraser 1884, pp. 491.
- ^ a b Fraser 1884, pp. 493.
- ^ Fraser 1884, pp. 491–93.
- ^ Fraser 1884, pp. 495–98.
- ^ Cassillis 1911, pp. 167–69.
- ^ Strathspey 1983, pp. 43.
- ^ The Right Honourable Caroline Countess of Seafield. A tribute volume, 'Mostly reprinted from Banffshire Journal'. 1911. Accessed (2017) via archive.org.
- ^ Strathspey 1983, pp. 44–9.
- ^ Cassillis 1911, pp. 164–65.
- ^ a b Fraser 1884, pp. 489.
- ^ Strathspey 1983, pp. 47.
- ^ Bardgett, Frank D. (2017). By the Dulnain and the Spey. The Victorian Saga of James Bain of Duthil. Dundee: Itelsor Ltd. pp. 69–80.
- ^ Bardgett 2017, pp. 74.
- ^ ‘Napier Commission in Inverness-shire, West coast, Inverness & Kingussie’ accessed in April 2017 at http://napier-inverness.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/kingussie-16-october-1883-thomas.html
- ^ Fraser 1884, pp. 488.
- ^ See section 'Highland clearances' in Clan Grant.
- ^ Bardgett 2017, pp. 74–6.
- ^ Fraser 1884, pp. 489–900.