Alexander Grant of Arndilly and Achoynanie

Alexander Grant of Arndilly was the cousin of Sir Alexander Grant, 5th Bart. In the early 1750s, alongside his cousin, he supervised the estates of Patrick Adam who had died. The two men assumed management and over the years they gradually purchased the shares in Adam's properties Albion and Eden. Alexander Grant of Achoynanie was an important part of his cousin's commercial network. David Hancock has suggested that 'Grant attributed his success in Jamaica to the appointment of his cousin and namesake Achoynanie as his island "doer."' Achoynanie was a 'dynamic manager' on the plantation; this was particularly important for his absentee cousin who relied on his contacts within the island to maintain and increase productivity on his estates.

1. Will of Alexander Grant of [Arndilly in Banff but now residing at] Queen Ann Street East proved 02/08/1780 (the will includes a codicil made in Jamaica of 1779). In the will, he left £100 p.a. from his Jamaica estates to the support of whoever was the heir of his Scottish estates, which he had previously separately entailed: the remaining produce from Jamaica was to be spent on land in Scotland as contiguous as possible to Arndilly to be for the benefit of whoever was the heir of his Scottish estates. [This appears to have been his daughter and in turn her husband David McDowall Grant (q.v.) and their children].

David Hancock, Citizens of the world: London merchants and the integration of the British Atlantic community, 1735-1785 , (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995), p.110, 148, 151, 314. Hancock consistently refers to the family as "of Achoynanie" - which was certainly part of their estate. But subsequently (e.g. Elizabeth Grant of Rothiemurchus, Memoirs of a Highland Lady, I, p.348) the family was normally known as "Grant of Arndilly".

1. PROB 11/1068/19.

We are grateful to Jim Brennan for his assistance with compiling this entry.