At the accession of Robert the Bruce in 1306, the Grants do not seem to have been very numerous in Scotland; but as the people of Strathspey, which from that period was known as “the country of the Grants,” came to form a clan, with their name, they soon acquired the position and power of Highland chiefs.
Sir John had three sons—Sir John, who succeeded him; Sir Allan, progenitor of the clan Allan, a tribe of the Grants, of whom the Grants of Auchernick are the head; and Thomas, ancestor of some families of the name. Sir John’s grandson, John de Grant, had a son; and a daughter, Agnes, married to Sir Richard Comyn, ancestor of the Cummings of Altyre. The son, Sir Robert de Grant, in 1385, when the king of France, then at war with Richard II., remitted to Scotland a subsidy of 40,000 French crowns, to induce the Scots to invade England, was one of the principal barons, about twenty in all, among whom the money was divided. He died in the succeeding reign.
At this point there is some confusion in the pedigree of the Grants. The family papers state that the male line was continued by the son of Sir Robert, named Malcolm, who soon after his father’s death began to make a figure as chief of the clan. On the other hand, some writers maintain that Sir Robert had no son, but a daughter, Maud or Matilda, heiress of the estate, and lineal representative of the family of Grant, who about the year 1400 married Andrew Stewart, son of Sir John Stewart, commonly called the Black Stewart, sheriff of Bute, and son of King Robert II., and that this Andrew sunk the royal name, and assumed instead the name and arms of Grant. This marriage, however, though supported by the tradition of the country, is not acknowledged by the family or the clan, and the very existence of such an heiress is denied.
Malcolm de Grant, above mentioned, had a son, Duncan de Grant, the first designed of Freuchie, the family title for several generations. By his wife, Muriel, a daughter of Mackintosh of Mackintosh, captain of the clan Chattan, he had, with a daughter, two sons, John and Patrick. The latter, by his elder son, John, was ancestor of the Grants of Ballindalloch, county of Elgin, of whom afterwards, and of those of Tomnavoulen, Tulloch, &c.; and by his younger son, Patrick, of the Grants of Dunlugas in Banffshire.
Duncan’s elder son, John Grant of Freuchie, by his wife, Margaret, daughter of Sir James Ogilvie of Deskford, ancestor of the Earls of Findlater, had, with a daughter, married to her cousin, Hector, son of the chief of Mackintosh, three sons—John, his heir; Peter or Patrick, said to be the ancestor of the tribe of Phadrig, or house of Tullochgorum; and Duncan, progenitor of the tribe called clan Donachie, or house of Gartenbeg. By the daughter of Baron Stewart of Kincardine, he had another son, also named John, ancestor of the Grants of Glenmoriston.
His eldest son, John, the tenth laird, called, from his poetical talents, the Bard, succeeded in 1508. He obtained four charters under the great seal, all dated 3d December 1509, of various lands, among which were Urquhart and Glenmoriston in Inverness-shire. He had three sons; John, the second son, was ancestor of the Grants of Shogglie, and of those of Corrimony in Urquhart.
The younger son, Patrick, was the progenitor of the Grants of Bonhard in Perthshire. John the Bard died in 1525.
His eldest son, James Grant of Freuchie, called, from his daring character, Shemas nan Creach, or James the Bold, was much employed, during the reign of King James V., in quelling insurrections in the northern counties. His lands in Urquhart were, in November 1513, plundered and laid waste by the adherents of the Lord of the Isles, and again in 1544 by the Clanranald, when his castle of Urquhart was taken possession of. This chief of the Grants was in such high favour with King James V. that he obtained from that monarch a charter, dated 1535, exempting him from the jurisdiction of all the courts of judicature, except the court of session, then newly instituted. He died in 1553. He had, with two daughters, two sons, John and Archibald; the latter the ancestor of the Grants of Cullen, Monymusk, &c.
His eldest son, John, usually called Evan Baold, or the Gentle, was a strenuous promoter of the Reformation, and was a member of that parliament which, in 1560, abolished Popery as the established religion in Scotland. He died in 1585, having been twice married—first, to Margaret Stewart, daughter of the Earl of Athole, by whom he had, with two daughters, two sons, Duncan and Patrick, the latter ancestor of the Grants of Rothiemurchus; and, secondly, to a daughter of Barclay of Towie, by whom he had an only son, Archibald, ancestor of the Grants of Bellintomb, represented by the Grants of Monymusk.