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IN our churchyard
there is a stone with the inscription— "Erected by John
Grant in Manchester to the memory of his father Donald
Grant, late square-wright at Nethy-Bridge, who died 24th
Sept., 1824, aged 52
years." This Donald was a first cousin of "the Grants of
Manchester." His son John was taken into their employment,
but died early. Another son, James, was being educated to
succeed his brother, but was accidentally drowned while
bathing in the Boat Pool at Cromdale in 1837. The only
other connection of our parish with the Grants was through
Mr John Grant, grandson of "
Parson John," who acted
as manager of the Estates of the Grants for many years,
and who now resides at Dellachaple, Garmouth, The story of
the Grants is quite a romance. William Grant, the elder,
occupied the farm of "The Haugh" at Elchies of Knockando.
He also engaged in droving,’’ buying cattle in the
country, and taking them to the south for sale. This trade
was precarious. When prices were good, it paid well, but
in bad seasons, and when there was a sudden fall in the
markets, it might be attended with serious losses. The
year 1782-3 were notably bad years, already referred to as
the Pease Years. According to one account, William Grant
went south with a drove, but failed to sell at Falkirk. He
crossed the border, but found no market. He pressed on to
Lancashire, and there, weary and disheartened, he stopped
for a night. In the morning he stood with his son William,
a lad of fourteen, on the Top o’ the Hoof, overlooking the
fair valley of the Irwell, and, charmed with the sight, he
said, ‘‘
This is paradise. Here I would
like to have my home." It seemed a vain wish. When Warren
Hastings was a child, he had "wild fancies
and projects" as to recovering the estates of his fathers.
Once, when only seven years old, as Macaulay tells, the
boy lay one bright summer day on the bank of the rivulet,
which flows through the old domain of his house, to join
the Isis. There, as three score and ten years later he
told the tale, rose in his mind a scheme which, through
all the turns of his eventful career, was never abandoned.
He would recover the estate which had belonged to his
fathers. He would be Hastings of Dalesford. And he
succeeded. William Grant’s position was
very different. He was a poor Highlander,
in sore straits; he was a stranger
in the land, which for him had no
associations or hopes, and the wish, which
rose from his heart, though natural, seemed
a vain fancy, a castle-in-the-air, dim and unreal, and
soon to die away and be forgotten. And yet, strange to
say, the wish came true. In that very land he settled
; there he and his
sons found a home, and there by honest
industry they built up a large and prosperous business, so
that in time they came to
rank among the merchant princes of
Manchester. and their names were enshrined with honour, as
"the Cheeryble Brothers," in the
immortal pages of Charles Dickens. There is another
version of the story, equally romantic. We give it
as it has been handed down in the family of
the Macketizies of Achvochkie. The Grants, as
already mentioned, got into difficulties
from bad seasons, and failure in
trade. In 1783, they resolved to try
their fortune in England. They had
little means, but they started with a horse and cart, and
a stock of provisions. The first night they put up at
Achvochkie. Next morning the
goodwife, Mrs Mackenzie, was
up early baking oat-cakes for them, which,
with other supplies, were added to their stock. The
journey was long and toilsome. By
the time they reached the valley of the Irwell, their
slender supplies were exhausted. Starvation in a
strange land stared them in
the face. That night, as they sought rest
on the top of the hill, where the monument now
stands, William Grant and his wife knelt
down beside their cart, and prayed
that of God’s mercy their children might be spared and,
bread sent to them.
Next morning two gentlemen out shooting
came upon the party, and, hearing their tale, gave Mrs
Grant two sovereigns. This seasonable help they regarded
as a direct answer to their prayer. They never wanted
afterwards. William Grant got employment, and his wife
started a little shop, by which she added to the earnings
of the family. In the days of their prosperity, William
and his sister came to Speyside, visited their friends,
and sought out their father’s creditors, settling all
their claims in full, with interest, in
the most generous manner. Mr William Grant
himself, the elder of the brothers, gives an account of
the settlement in the Irwell Valley, in a letter to a
friend, fifty-six years after the event, which, although
it leaves out details as to their early history, is
extremely interesting. It is as follows:—
SPRINGSIDE, May 17, 1839.
"Dear Sir,—Allow me to acknowledge the
receipt of your esteemed favour of the 10th. My father was
a dealer in cattle, and lost his property in the year
1783. He got a letter of introduction to Mr Arkwright (the
late Sir Richard), and came by the way of Skipton to
Manchester, accompanied by me. As we passed along the old
road, we stopped for a short time on the Park estate to
view the valley. My father exclaimed, What a beautiful
valley! May God Almighty bless it! it reminds me of
Speyside, but the Irwell is not so large as the river
Spey.’
I recollect Messrs Peel & Yates were
then laying the foundation of their print works at
Ramsbottom. We went forward to Manchester and called upon
Mr Arkwright; but he had so many applications at the time
that he could not employ him. There were then only
Arkwright’s mill, on a small scale, and Thacary’s mill in
Manchester. There was a mill on the lrwell belonging to Mr
Douglas, two belonging to Messrs Peel & Yates, the one at
Radcliffe Bridge, the other at Hinds; and these were the
only mills then in Lancashire. My father then applied to a
Mr Dinwiddie, a Scotch gentleman, who knew him in his
prosperity, and who was a printer and manufacturer at
Hampson Mill, near Bury. He agreed to give my father
employment, and placed my brother James acid me in
situations, where we had an opportunity of acquiring a
knowledge both of manufacturing and printing; and offered
me a partnership when I had completed my apprenticeship. I
declined this offer, and commenced business for myself on
a small scale, assisted by my brothers John, Daniel, and
Charles, and removed to Bury, where I was very successful;
and in the course of a few years I removed to Manchester,
and commenced printing in partnership with my brothers. My
brother Daniel commenced travelling through the
north of England and almost to every
market town in Scotland. In 1806 we purchased the print
works belonging to Sir Robert Peel, etc., situated at
Ramsbottom. In 1812 we purchased Nuttal factory. In
consequence of the death of Mr Alsop, the work-people had
been long short of employment, and were very destitute. We
ordered the manager to get new machinery, of the
first-rate construction, and greatly extended the
building; and before we began to spin or manutacture, we
clothed the whole of the hands at our own expense;
prepared an entertainment for them, and observed that the
interests of masters and servants are bound up together;
that there are reciprocal duties to perform, that no
general or admiral could be brave unless he was supported
by his men; that we knew how to reward merit, and would
give constant employment and liberal wages to all our
faithful servants; and I am happy to say that they, as
well as those at our printing establishment, with very few
exceptions, have conducted themselves with great
propriety.
In 1818 we purchased Springside, and in
1827 we purchased the Park estate, and erected a monument
to commemorate my father’s first visit to this valley, and
on the very spot where he and I stood admiring the
beautiful scenery below. There is a fine view from there
of the tower in a clear day, and the Welsh mountains can
be descried in the distance.
We attribute much of our prosperity,
under divine Providence. to the good example and good
counsel of our worthy parents. They expressed a wish that
I would build a Sunday school, and erect a church to
worship God in, according to the ritual of the Church of
Scotland, as a tribute of gratitude to Him for his great
kindness to the family. I cheerfully complied with their
request, and both have been finished years ago. We have
done business, on a large scale, at all the places you
have named, exporting our goods and receiving the
productions of those countries in return ;
but trade for some years has been very
unproductive—profits being so small, and the risk great,
that we have been very much inclined to retire on the
moderate fortune we have acquired with great industry,
were it not to give employment to our work— people; but we
feel unwilling to throw our servants out of
employment at a time when many are only being
worked three days in the week."
William Grant, sen ,
as already mentioned held the
farm of the Haugh, Knockando, so well known, in later
days, as the residence of Mr Macconachie, the famous
bone-setter, always familiarly called ‘‘Haughie." He
had for his neighbour Alexander
Smith, father of the present lord Strathcona, who was his
first cousin. His wife was Grizel or Grace Mackenzie, who
was born at Tombreek of Inveravon, and whose
great-grand-nephew, Mr William J.
Mackenzie, is now editor of The Northern
Scot newspaper.
Mrs Grant was a woman of rare strength
of character and goodness, and the success of the family
was largely due to her. As was meet, her sons held her in
much honour, and cherished her memory dearly. Dickens has
brought out this well in the account which he gives of the
birthday festival of the " Brothers"
to their confidential clerk, "Tim Linkinwater":—"
Brother Charles, my dear fellow,
there is another association connected with this day which
must never be forgotten, and never can be forgotten by you
and me. This day, which brought into
the world a most faithful and excellent and exemplary
fellow, took from it the kindest and very best of
parents—the very best of parents to us both. I wish that
she could have seen us in our prosperity, and shared it,
and had the happiness of knowing how dearly we loved her
in it, as we did when we were her poor boys—but that was
not to be. My dear brother—- The Memory of our Mother."
Rev. Mr Elliot says that, "
as a matter of fact, that mother’s
word or wish, to the end of her days, was the law of her
sons." He also states, as mentioned in
the biography by the Revs Franklin Howorth,
that the brothers "seldom passed their mother’s picture
without an inclination of reverence or an exclamation of
gratitude.’’
Mr William Grant died at Grant Lodge,
Ramsbottom, 29 th June, 1817,
aged 84 and his wife four years later, 16th
May, 1821, aged 79. Of their sons,
William, the eldest, died, in 1842.
The following is the inscription on a marble tablet in St
Andrew’s Church:—"Sacred
to the memory of William Grant of Spring-side, Esquire—the
Founder of this Church. Born at Elchies, Morayshire,
Scotland, on the 16th April, 1769. Died at Spring-side on
28th February, 1842.
Distinguished by vigour of understanding,
spotless integrity of character, and true benevolence of
heart. He lived a benefactor to his species, and died
universally lamented." To his
brother Daniel, his brother’s death was, as Mr Elliot
says, a supreme bereavement. "The irrepressible
sprightliness indeed still scintillated about the lithe
and agile form, but the very genuineness of the man——the
moral transparency—-made it impossible altogether to
conceal the consciousness of how much had gone from him. A
mellowing sense of solitude, with its deep
‘ deciphering oracle within,’
henceforth went with him through the busy haunts of men
" Daniel died 12th March, 1855,
aged 75 years, and less than two months after, on 6th May,
1855, John, the last of the brothers, passed to his rest.
William was undoubtedly the business man of the family.
One of his pet maxims was "Good masters make good workmen
;" and his favourite counsel,
"Always be civil. Civility’s cheap. Always be civil."
The generosity of the Grants was
proverbial. Once, it is said, a member of a well-known
Liverpool firm called at the office at a time when they
were in hard straits for money.
How much do you need?" asked Daniel.
" From £6000 to £8000." Daniel
at once signed a cheque for £10,000, for which he would
take no formal security. " No,
no," said the worthy man. ‘‘
Take them with you! take them with you! A thing of honour
a thing of honour! Pay when you can! pay when you can!
" In Smiles’
" Life of James Nasmyth," it is stated that Nasmyth,
when beginning business, had an introduction to the
Grants. He called at the office in Cannon Street, and was
asked by Daniel to take "tiffin" at the house in Morely
Street. The first thing Daniel did was to present him to
"his noble brother, William," as he always affectionately
called him. Some talk took place as to Nasmyth’s age,
means, and prospects. He said he had but £63 to start
with, amid William replied, "What! that will do very
little for You when Saturday nights come round." But," he
whispered, "keep your heart up," and added that if he
wanted money to pay wages, he would find £500 at his
credit in Cannon Street, and no security! Thus it was that
the Grants helped many young men both in Lancashire and in
their own country. One other anecdote may be given as
illustrative of the benevolent spirit of these good men.
Once a certain rival trader wrote a pamphlet, in which the
Grants were spoken of in calumnious and abusive terms,
William read it, and said the man who wrote it would be
sorry for it some day. This came to the ears of the
libeller, who took it as a threat. In the ups and downs of
trade the pamphleteer became a bankrupt, and Grant was his
chief creditor. He was advised to call upon him, but he
said, I need not go to him ; I can expect no favour
from him." Try him," said some one who knew him
better. So he went to Mr Grant and told his sad story, and
asked his signature to a paper already signed by others of
his creditors. "Give me the paper," said Mr Grant, and
after he had glanced at it, he said, "You wrote a pamphlet
about me once," and without waiting for a reply he handed
back the paper, having written something upon it. The poor
bankrupt expected to find libeller or slanderer
or such like. But no; there ‘was only the signature.
"I said you would be sorry for the writing of that
pamphlet," the good man said. "I did not mean it as a
threat. I meant that some day you would know better, and
see that I did not deserve to be attacked in that way."
And he not only freely forgave him that debt, but did much
to help him and his family in their time of need.
‘‘ Don’t lose heart I’ll stand
by you," he said, and he was as good as his word. |
