The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-11-14
GEN. GRANTS COUSIN AN EARL.
PREPARATIONS FOR THE COMING
OF AGE OF THE ELEVENTH
EARL OF SEAFIELD.
Scottish "Grants of Grant, - The
Young Earl Closely Resembles His
Cousin, Ulysses 5. Grant Third-Has
Lately Come Into His Fortune

A"uhS Earl closely Resembles His
Cousin, Ulysses 5. Grant Third-Has
Lately Come Into His Fortune.
New York, Nov 12.-When Gen. Grant
became famous, the genealogists traced
out for him an ancestry which conneeted
him with the ancient Scottish family of
the Grants of Grant" the heads Of
which house have been many years Ears
of seafeld
The general was aware of the relation
ship, and while he pretended to be amused
by it, was secretly well pleased at the dis
unguished blood that ran in his veins
His close resemblance to the then living
earl was curiously noted by him. And
could he be alive to-day he would be much
interested in following up the same re-
semblance between his grandson and the
young earl of almost the same age, who is
just celebrating his majority.
The Grants first became prominent in
1914, when Alexander II was King of
Scotland and Gregory de Grant was
sheriff of Inverness. The family has lust
been brought into notice again by the
coming of age of the eleventh Earl of
Seaheld, the son of a farm iaborer in New
Zealand, and the return Of the young man
to Scotland
Stranger than creation of fiction has
been the history of the vicissltudes Of
the Scottish Grants. Death and poverty
have been busy with them of late wears
So rapidly have the bearers of the title
of Seated died that the widows of the
nh
alive, and 1t Is the first mentioned dow
| ager, the great aunt of the present earl.
who has whatever property has been
saved out Of the wreck of the fortunes of
this illustrious house.
The ninth earl was so poor that he
was unable to provide properly for his
son, Francis William and the Young man
wandered out to New Zealand, where he
got employment as a farm hand. and, be-
ing an industrious and Woodworking man.
ne managed to acquire a little farm Of
ms own, and became a notability in the
little colonial community in Oamaru
where he lived.
Everybody knew he was an heir of the
bankrupt Earldom of Seafield but did NOT
think any the less of him for that as he
never put on airs. As Farmer Grant he
talked crops and politics with the country
folk ana was as good a Judge of ton
dressing as anybody in the nelghborhood
Finally Farmer Grant was elected to the
local legislature, and was as proud of the
distinction as any of his ancestors had
been when royal hands were shoWerine
lands and peerages upon them
one day in 1888, when Farmer Grant
went to the country post-ofice for his
mail, driving down to the village in his
farm wagon, he found a letter from Scot
land telling him that his father was dead.
and that he was Sir James Ogilvie-G
Of GoTd
Baron Ogilvy of Deskford and Cullen.
Baron Strathspey of Strathspey. and a
baronet. That was all right as far as
titles went but titles would not build a
new barn or put in another crop of pota-
toes and titles was all that Farmer Grant
had inherited
So he drove slowly back to the farm.
thinking all the While of the strange things
that happened TO noble families. When
Grant had begun to do well enough in New
Zealand to support wife he had mar
ried Annie Trevor CORY Evans, a daugh-
ter of the noble house Of Carberry. who.
for the love she bore him had been content
to follow his fortunes and become a far
mer's wife in far-off New Zealand.
They raised six children, three boys and
three girls, and had given those old enough
to go TO school the best education that
they could in that far-away place Mrs.
Grant herself had attended to the teach
ing Of the younger ones in the time she
could spare from her many household du-
ties and, more than ALL they had been
brought up to be honest and God-fearing.
and to look forward to life of industry
such as their parents had lived. That same
sturdy Grant character which made the
ancestors of Gen. Grant hard-working and
respected citizens of Connecticut and fin
ally crowned him with days undying, was
evinced in the farmhouse at Oamaru.
EaY~ ,~afrt L. n
told his wife that she was Countess, she,
like a well-conducted person, went on
cutting bread and butter" for the chill
dren's supper, and there was no stir in
the household though IL is probable that
when the hired mans shores resounded
from the garnet, and the chill
dren were all peacefully asleep, there was
a long talk between the good farmer and
his wife as to what might have been and
the prospects which the children had IL
aunt Caroline" should take one Of them
into favor.
Aunt Caroline was the Hon. Caroline
Stuart, daughter of William Robert, elev-
enth Lord Blantyre, and widow of the
Earl Seafeld, and she held the family es-
tates so that while Farmer Grant knew
that he would now be entered in the
"Peerage" as having seats" at Cullen
house, Banffshire; Grant Lodge Elgine
Castle Grant and Balmacaan, Inverness,
his little farm at Oamaru would be stili
put down as his residence"
Farmer Grant lived only nine months
after his accession to the earldom, and
when he died his Oldest boy James, car
ried on the farm until he became of age.
In the meantime his royal clansmen in
Scotland had not forgotten him, and had
kept watch over the outgoing and incom-
ing of their hereditary chief
Last April the boy became Of age, and
there arrived for him an address from
the Clan Grant, and stealing a while