first printed in Standfast 2010

The recent visit to Scotland of the Cherokee party brought into some focus their ancestor - Ludovick Grant, erstwhile younger of Creichie. Amongst many lines of investigation worthy of attention in this regard is why he should have been given that name. Because Ludovick was first married in 1710 and because we have good reason to suppose that he must have died in the later 1750s, we may be confident that he was born in the 1680s.

The name Ludovick is not a very common name - and not common in Scotland. Yet so relatively numerous are the Ludovick Grants (Chiefs and others) that one dictionary of first names (the "Oxford Names Companion") specifies that it is a name particularly associated with the Grants. Moreover the name Ludovick seems to appear "ex nihilo" - apparently from nowhere. But such things do not happen - or rather they did not in those days. This is worthy of some exploration.

First let us consider the name itself and here we should begin by noting that this is a Latin form. Given, however, that in those days all respectable people were fluent in that language we need not be overly exercised by this fact beyond recognising that it is the sort of name that would be used mostly by educated people. There is no doubt that the origins of the name lie in the Norse and Germanic languages: the Old Norse "Hlodvir" and the German "Ludwig" giving rise also to the French form "Louis". Like most Anglo-Saxon names of the time, the name is composed two elements: "Hlod" meaning "fame" and "vir" meaning "warrior". Thus, originally, in giving that name to a son, a father expressed his aspiration that his son would grow to become a famous warrior. [In later generations the forms Ludovick and Lewis were used interchangeably even with reference to a single individual.]

Amongst notable "Hlodvir"s there are a couple of Earls of Orkney; few people will need to be reminded of Ludwig van Beethoven or Ludwig Wittgenstein, for example. As for "Louis", we may note 18 kings of France by that name and many many others.

This problem came into even sharper focus when, with Douglas Grant (Tyne and Wear), I was investigating the MacRobbie Grants who, so far as we can tell at the moment, went to England from Scotland in the late 1300s - initially to sell horses - and from whom sprang, amongst others, President US Grant, the John Grant who was hanged for his part in the Gunpowder Plot and the model Jodie Kidd. The curious matter is that the name Ludovick appears in that cadet family BEFORE our chiefly line.

Ludovick Grant, chief from 1663 to 1714, was born in 1641 and was the first of the Highland Grants to bear the name. It was he who was given the nickname "the Highland King" and he who in 1694 had his lands raised to a "regality" (ie giving him quasi-regal powers in his own lands), so there can be no doubting his fame and importance at the time. Thus he was well established as chief when the Cherokees' Ludovick was born.

So the answer to the question as to why the Cherokees' Ludovick was so named is easy - for all that he was born and raised outwith clan lands he was named in honour of his Clan Chief (and documentary evidence powerfully implies that Ludovick's father William would have known his chief personally).

But this leaves open the question of why the "Highland King" was given the name Ludovick in the first place.

It would seem that the first Ludovick of any note in Scotland - perhaps anywhere in Britain - was Ludovick Stuart (born 1574, died 1624, not yet 50, without issue), inter alia, Duke of Lennox and of Richmond. His immediate background was French; by age he was a contemporary of Louis XIII (b.1601). [Louis XII (1562-1515) was nicknamed "the father of the people".]

[Ludovick Stuart's ancestral line goes back to John Stewart of Bonkyl, son of Alexander Stewart, High Steward, and Jean MacRory. John Stewart of Bonkyl was thus the half brother of Andrew (Stewart) Grant, ancestor of our own current chiefly line.]

Perhaps it was because he produced no heir that Ludovick Stuart is not a character who springs immediately to the mind even of many of those who take a particular interest in Scottish History. But let there be no doubt as to his importance. On the death of his father he was summoned back to Scotland (at the age of 9) to be infeft in the titles and estates of Lennox and others. He was the named heir presumptive to the Scottish throne (until 1594) and was, in effect, Regent of Scotland when James VI went abroad to find a wife (1589/90). He accompanied James VI when he went south to London in 1603 to claim the English throne; he was High Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament (briefly - in 1607/9) and was later involved in plantations in Ireland and in America. His burial in Westminster Abbey was conducted amid scenes of enormous pomp.

Some years after 1066 it is claimed that one seventh of all boys born in England were called "William" - and we may be sure that many children were called Ludovick or Lewis in honour of Ludovick Stewart. There was, for example, a Ludovick Lindsay at around this time and the 3rd Marquess of Huntly (of Huntly's Cave fame, who married Mary Grant) was called Lewis.

Straight away we can see the coincidence that Ludovick Stuart was, at least for a time, not only a very important representative of the now British king in Scotland, but also, as Duke of Ricsubsection: 2hmond, he was the principal liege lord of the now Anglicised MacRobbie Grants, whose main lands were in Richmond territory. Coincidences do happen, however, and the claiming dates imply that the Richmond connection was not a material one in the choice of the name for the MacRobbie Ludovick. Nevertheless even Matthew Grant (the ancestor of President Ulysses Grant) who emigrated to America was known to be a proud Scot - and we may be confident that he inherited that pride from his forebears. So, provided that the MacRobbie Ludovick was born in or after 1583, there is no difficulty in understanding why that name came to be chosen for him.

There is a residual problem for the Clan Grant, however for, as we have seen, "The Highland King" was not born until 1641. Fortunately this problem is very easily addressed for Ludovick Stuart had two very close connections to lady Mary Stewart - wife of Chief James Grant and mother of the "Highland King".

First: Ludovick was Mary's great uncle. Lady Mary Stewart's mother was Lady Anne Gordon, daughter of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly and his wife Lady Henrietta Stuart, a sister of Ludovick Stuart.

Second: when Lady Mary's paternal grandfather, James Stewart (by virtue of marriage the second Earl of Moray) was murdered by the same George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly (1592) Ludovick Stuart insisted upon becoming guardian to their son also James Stewart, 3rd Earl of Moray, who would become Lady Mary's father.

In modern parlance James Grant, Ludovick's father, was punching well above his weight when he married Lady Mary! The lack of pretension amongst the Grants is illustrated by the fact that the name Ludovick could have been allocated to a son in either of the two previous generations - but was not. [It should be noted that Sir William Fraser's reference to Lady Mary's ancestral background is quite inadequate. Moreover in the family tree the reference to the "2nd" Earl of Moray is incorrect.]

Conclusions

And so it is that I conclude first that Ludovick Stuart was so-called because the name was fashionable in French court circles - due to King Louis XII in particular. This fashionability led also to Louis XIII and XIV etc..

Second it was Ludovick Stuart's position as heir apparent and as Regent of Scotland which led to its adoption by various Scottish families and specifically to the application of the name Ludovick amongst the MacRobbie Grants.

Third the choice of the name Ludovick for the eldest son of Chief James Grant was occasioned particularly because of the esteem and affection in which his mother, Lady Mary Stewart, held her late great uncle.

Lastly the fact that subsequently the name particularly stuck with the Grants was triggered by the great esteem in which the "Highland King" was held within the Clan.

Postscript

Even a brief summary of his life and political and religious attachments could be taken to imply that lady Mary's husband, 18th Chief James Grant, 7th of Freuchie, very much a covenanter, was very far from being an ideal candidate (from a Royalist perspective) to be elevated to the peerage - and yet it was only the failure of Charles II to complete the patent before James' untimely death in 1663 (at the age of c47) that prevented his having an earldom! But with the benefit of a fresh and full understanding we may now see why it was that this James Grant was offered a peerage! As it has ever been, it is more a matter of connections......