Down Memory Lane: Social reformer Charles Grant saw vast changes during his lifetime

A lad born at Aldourie on the day of the Battle of Culloden would rise to become a key figure and then chairman of what became the world’s largest corporation, writes Bill McAllister.

This year marks the 200th anniversary of the death of Charles Grant, social reformer and statesman, and MP for Inverness-shire.

Charles – named after Bonnie Prince Charlie – made his fortune with the British East India Company, which once ruled India with a larger army than Britain had, and was one of the world’s most important economic and political forces.

This newspaper, recording his death in 1823, noted that Grant went out to India “with few advantages, save those which his own talents and conduct procured for him”.

A county meeting in Inverness passed a motion that Grant’s influence over the previous 21 years had led the government to contribute more money and attention on the Highlands than ever before.

The day he was born, his father escaped from gory Culloden by crossing Ness Islands, using his sword to fell a mounted opponent who was trying to kill a fellow Jacobite.

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Alexander Grant, from Shewglie, Glen Urquhart, was known as The Swordsman for his exploits. His brother died in Cradlehall from wounds received in the battle.

Ironically, William Forsyth, a merchant and shipowner from Cromarty, who was captured by Jacobites in Cromarty and imprisoned in Inverness for two days just before the battle, was to play a key role in Grant’s career.

Forsyth hired the 14-year-old Grant as his assistant, gave him books and money and important recommendations. When he was 19, Charles was London-bound to enter the counting house of a relative who had fought alongside his father on Drumossie Moor.

He was 21 when, furnished with letters of introduction, he first sailed to India, being hired by a member of the Council of Bengal who sought someone qualified and trustworthy.

Grant, it was recorded, “saw and mitigated the greatest famine on record, which swept off four million people” in Bengal and surrounding states.

Charles was only 23 when he laboured 20 hours a day to secure relief for famine victims. His efforts eventually told on his health and he returned to Glen Urquhart in 1770 where he met and married Jane, a daughter of the Frasers of Balnain.

Three years later he took his bride to Calcutta where Governor General Warren Hastings appointed him Secretary of the Board of Trade.

Hastings then gave Grant the considerable ‘perk’ of being in charge of the Silk Manufactory, the commissions from which rapidly made him rich.

Charles further impressed the East India Company by exposing fraud and inefficiencies. He campaigned against the burning of lepers and the practice of burning widows. It is claimed he would have been Governor General had his wife’s health not forced his return in 1790, where he settled in London.

Three years later he was elected a director of the company and went on to introduce freightage reforms which saved a considerable amount.

In 1802 Grant, who now owned a Skye estate at Waternish, was elected MP for Inverness-shire.

He associated himself with the anti-slavery, religious and philanthropic work of his friend William Wilberforce and supported votes for Catholics.

By 1805 he was East India’s chairman and influenced Parliament to grant funds for “the enlightened education of the people of India”. Grant also established and financially supported the first two Sunday schools in Inverness.

His home was in Russell Square, London, when he stepped down as MP in 1818, to be succeeded by his son, also Charles Grant, who was later to be Colonial Secretary. His other son Robert became Governor of Bombay.

Charles senior was 78, and still active on the Company’s behalf, when he died, the directors praising his “great ability, inflexible integrity and unremitting attention”, including “improving the condition of the vast population under the company’s rule.”

In St George’s Church, Bloomsbury, London, stands a marble monument erected by the Company in memory of the boy from Aldourie.

n Sponsored by Ness Castle Lodges.