Where is Dalvey:

The name Grant of Dalvey will strike a chord with many Grants, but beyond the name itself a blank may be drawn. So let us start off by seeing exactly where Dalvey is on the east bank of the Spey with Ballindalloch just above the NE corner and Castle Grant just off the right hand side roughly opposite the name “Delachapple”:

Map of the area around Dalvey in Scotland

Base map: maps.nls.uk

Allt na Criche means “boundary burn” and this helps us define the border between Dalvey and Dalchapple to the south. From where Allt na Criche meets the Burn of Dalvey at Bridge of Shennach to the west there is a straight line which also separates place names sensibly, so we may be confident that this represents a continuation of a very old boundary. To the north Advie was separate from Dalvey so the boundary likely followed the watershed between them. To the east the watershed between Spey and A’an remains an important political boundary and to the west the Spey is the natural frontier.

How Dalvey came into Grant hands:

Dalvey was one of many holdings of the Church which was taken on as a “tack”. In this case it was by a Patrick Grant, a junior son of the Patrick Grant of Ballindalloch who appears at the head of Fraser’s pedigree of the 1st house of Ballindalloch. He was “in” Ballindalloch in 1537 (he was a “tacksman” – ie renting the estate), but then, when he got a charter from Patrick, Bishop of Moray in 1540 (ie he became a wadsetter), he became “of” Dalvey. The estate continued for 6 generations of this family until 1680 when it was sold by Robert Grant to a John Campbell of Friertoun. It looks as if he must have harboured ambitions of status: for he was able to obtained a crown charter for Dunlugas.

However just two years later, Dalvey was purchased by another Grant – James Grant, younger of Gartinbeg and so it is to this family that we must now turn our attention.

James Grant of Gartinbeg then Dalvey: As his father’s second son, James had had no expectation of inheriting Gartinbeg and so had to find a career for himself – which he did by becoming an advocate (the Scottish equivalent of a barrister). Clearly he did extremely well for himself because after his elder brother, Duncan, had predeceased his father without issue not only did he inherit Gartinbeg, but he was able both to purchase the wadset of Dalvey (1682) and a baronetcy of Nova Scotia (1688). In 1691 The chief redeemed the wadset on Gartinbeg. Sadly this was clearly a retirement project, for he died in 1695 leaving two daughters.

James’ immediate successors: When James died his estate and title passed to his next brother Ludovick (this is the man identified – incorrectly – by “The Oukah” as the Cherokee patriarch), but Ludovick died in 1701 without children and without having assumed the title. These then passed to the nearest heir, their second cousin Sueton (who, as it happens had moved in to Gartinbeg). However Sueton sold them on the same year (1701) to his second cousin once removed: strong>Patrick Grant hitherto of Inverlaidnan (Sueton had married his sister). This sale was unproblematic – and he even received a crown charter to the land in 1707. He died in 1755 at the age of 101.

The Common Ancestry of the Dalvey/Gartinbeg/Inverlaidnan family

As we can see also elsewhere, Sir William Fraser draws a veil over the origins of this family – perhaps to preserve ‘decorum’, even though he has no choice but to acknowledge “natural” (ie illegitimate) sons elsewhere in his narrative. So the head of his pedigree is one John McConquhy or MacConachie Grant who, he says died shortly before 1553. So we should understand that this John’s father was called Duncan. If John McConquhy had lived a full life we might suppose that he would have been born c1480 and so his father c1465, but as we shall see this is highly unlikely to be the case. [Worse than this was Earl Cassillis in his 1911 “Rulers of Strathspey – intended to be an update and précis of Fraser’s work: He excluded both the 2nd Dalvey and Tullochgorm lines altogether!]

The ‘traditional” MS histories take a very different line, but in this case they are at variance. Here are two versions:

Monymusk Text p. 21:

17. John 1st. John Grant of Freuchy and Balachastle, Sheriff Principal of Inverness, a man of good accomplishments, yet wanted not his other infirmities, he being a Man after his father's death living in Balachastle, about the year 1300, begetteth a young woman living about the family, or as others say his Lady's maid, with Child of a Son whom he named Duncan; this is the Progenitor and first Man of the House of Gastenbeg, and all descended of him are called Daunachy, of these there are several families in Strathspey, but the most remarkable are Grant of Inverlaidnen, now of Dalvey; Grant of Dalrachny in Duthell.

Cromdale Text p.109:

THE said Sir Duncan besides his Sons lawfully begotten had other Two Sons, The Elder of which called Patrick is The Progenitor of The Family of Tullochgorm, and his Posterity is commonly called Clan Phadrick, and The other Son called Duncan is The Progenitor of The Family of WeGartenbeg, and his Posterity is commonly called Clan Ducachy.

We should start by setting aside the “1300” date in MT where all the early dates are hopelessly out; so too the transcription mistakes. But both are agreed that the founder of the family was called Duncan and that his mother was a Lady’s Maid at what would later become Castle Grant. The choice is between Chief Ian Roy and his son Chief Sir Duncan.

  • Ian Roy married around 1410 and his father was murdered by the Comyns around that time – so he was born shortly before 1390. It was indeed Ian Roy who sired a boy with either the daughter or the wife of Baron Lamb in Tullochcarn in Stratha’an. This boy was Patrick (named after Ian Roy’s father) the progenitor of Tullochgorm and widely referred to as Patrick mac Ian Roy.

  • Sir Duncan was born in the period 1410x5 and will have married after 1430 and most likely before 1435. But we are told that it was a long time before he and his wife conceived.

  • We have no indication of why Ian Roy chose to call his son Duncan.

So now let us extrapolate backwards from Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey to see where we get:

Sir Patrick died in 1755 at the age of 101, so we may take his birth year as 1654. He was the eldest son of

Donald Grant of Inverlaidnan so I would assign a putative birth date to him of 1630, but given his father (see below) we should vary this to c1620. Donald died in 1676 – making hum 56, but his brother survived to after 1689, making the assigned birth epoch reasonable. He was the eldest son of

John Grant of Dalrachnie, who died in 1667, He was already an adult in 1613 so we will assign a putative birth date to him of 1590. He was a younger son of

Sueton Grant, so we should expand the usual intergenerational gap to assign a putative birth date around 1560. He was the fourth son of

Duncan McCondacht Grant so we need to be even more generous with the time gap – and assign a date of c1525. Duncan was the eldest son and heir of

John McConquhy Grant so we might reasonably guess at his birth being around 1500, giving a likely birth date for his father

Duncan Grant around 1475.

At this point we should note that Sir Duncan Grant was of pensionable age and that his son John who died before him was already about 30 years of age, married and with a son. So, while not impossible, it is unlikely that he would be fooling around with a lady’s maid. So we need to consider that this family tree has two more generations to go back to meet the family line.

So we may hypothesise

“John” Grant born c1450 and

Duncan Grant born c 1425

So we are left with the conclusion that CT has got it right that the same man fathered both Patrick of Tullochgorm and Duncan of Gartinbeg (whence Dalvey). But CT has the wrong man and MT the right one – it was Ian Roy. This is confirmed, albeit tentatively, in the Tullochgorm Memoirs (p17).

This fits with Ian Roy’s character: (i) he was killed in a “blue on blue” incident during the wizard wheeze of his own devising to end the feud with the Comyns and (ii) the trauma of one’s father being murdered can find expression in many ways. It also makes sense for both boys to have been settled the newly inherited lands brought through Bigla Beg of Glencarnie as part of cementing Grant control.

Today it would be reasonable to raise an eyebrow at a father calling two of his sons by the same name (in this case Duncan). But just two generations later, John Grant, the ‘Bard Roy’, had an illegitimate son John (later 1st of Glenmoriston) and then later he also named his second legitimate son John (later 1st of Corrimony).

Ian Roy named Patrick (later of Tullochgorm) after his own murdered father, so we may reasonably suppose that he was the oldest - the liaison may well have preceded his marriage. I have yet to establish the basis of John Roy’s focus on the name Duncan.

So far as the dating is concerned, what I have offered above is indicative only – there is plenty of “wiggle room” bounded only by Ian Roy’s death in 1434. Thus it is not impossible that Duncan too was born before Ian Roy married; on the other hand it may be that he was not born until after the death of Bigla Beg, Ian Roy’s wife. However on balance it is more likely that Duncan of Gartinbeg was born before Duncan the next chief.

Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey (3rd Baronet) and his descendants

[NB some sources refer to him as the 5th Baronet. This is because after Sir Patrick the original purchaser, the Baronetcy would have devolved on his brothers, first Ludovick and then Sueton, had either “assumed the dignity”.]

Sir William Fraser (“Chiefs of Grant) says:

SIR ALEXANDER GRANT OF DALVEY, THIRD BARONET: Who was a merchant in London. In 1749 he purchased several lands from the Laird of Grant, and also the estate of Grangehill, near Forres, in the parish of Dyke and Moy, of which he obtained a Crown charter, 26th July 1749, and named them Dalvey. He obtained, on 24th February 1755, a charter of sale of the lands of Newton Park, etc., in Nairnshire. He obtained a royal warrant for supporters for his armorial bearings on 8th July 1761, and registered the arms and supporters on 15th April 1762. He died at London on 1st August 1772, and was survived by his widow, …… Cooke, who died, also at London, on 29th July 1792, in her 75th year. - He left no issue, and was succeeded by his brother.

The Birkenburn MS Ch18 Section 1 says:

Sir Alexr, planter in West Indies, when he took out his escutcheon at the herald office chose for a Crest “two sugar canes,” with the motto “by these I grew”, supporters, “two blacks, “by these I stand”. But, when he came down to Inverness after he came home, his countrymen were so displeased with the sight of the savages portrayed on his chaise that they teared the machine almost in pieces.

See also:

Sir Alexander Grant was born in 1705, just before his father obtained the Crown Charter. At the time of writing the nature of his father’s Jacobite activities are not clear, but we should infer that his circumstances were greatly reduced as a result of them not only because he felt the need to sell his charter to his Clan Chief in 1722, but even before that Alexander had had to take his own future into his own hands.

  • He apprenticed himself to a barber-surgeon. This would normally be done at the age of 14, but he might have pulled strings to get in a little early.

  • He also undertook a correspondence course in pharmacy run (almost certainly) by Marischal College, Aberdeen

  • He did not complete his apprenticeship for by 1721 at the age of 16 or 17 he had used contacts with other Grants who were already engaged in slave-based plantations to find a living in “physick and chirurgerie”.

So profitable was this enterprise that by 1730 he had been able to purchase his own 300 acre estate.

After his marriage there he left his affairs in the hands of agents and went to London where amongst other things he linked up with Richard Oswald to establish the business Grant Oswald &Co., probably the premier company in the British slave transporting business and, eg renting Bunce Island (variously ‘Bance’) from the local tribal leadership which was only too keen to forage the interior for slaves to sell on to them.

When he came back to Britain, he was keen to ‘rehabilitate’ his father Patrick. Although it could be argued that it was in his self-interest to do so, I am left in no doubt that his feelings for his father were genuine:

  • He purchased a substantial estate in Nairnshire which he renamed “New Dalvey” and moved his father in.

  • He spent large sums of money, not to mention effort fighting a court case which was eventually (1752) successful in gaining for his father the baronetcy which had been purchased by James, Patrick’s 2nd cousin once removed. This would appear highly irregular as Patrick was not a descendant of James’; however the patent referred to “heirs male whomsoever” rather than the more normal “heirs male of the body” and even more normal “legitimate heirs male of the body”. In this way Alexander was able to claim that Patrick was James’ heir and so eligible to matriculate.

Having his Scottish base at New Dalvey facilitated Alexander becoming an MP.

After Sir Alexander, several members of the family made their careers in the Caribbean and in India until another Sir Alexander - great great nephew of the 3rd baronet - who returned from a career in academia in India to be Principal of Edinburgh University.

Footnote: Matriculated Family Arms: (Fraser Vol 1 p 531)

Grants of Gartinbeg: Gules, three antique crowns, or, within a bordure engrailed, of the second: Crest, the trunk of an oak-tree sprouting out some leaves, with the sun shining thereon: Motto, Te favente virebo.

Grants of Dalvey, descended from Gartinbeg: Same as the last, with this addition, that a grant of supporters was made to Sir Alexander Grant of Dalvey on 8th July 1761, as follows:- On the dexter a Highlander, and on the sinister a negro. [Matriculated 15th April 1762.]

Afterword: Aird of Dalvey now has its own website: aird-highland-house.com