Women -- Biography; Women -- Social and moral questions
Mr. Macvicar, like most Scotchmen, had the faculty of making money, and
with the view of settling in America had obtained a large grant of
land, and had purchased several valuable properties, the market value
of which was every day rising. Miss Macvicar was looked upon as an
heiress; but her father, falling into bad health, was obliged to return
to Scotland in 1768, bringing his wife and daughter along with him. He
had left America without being able to dispose of his property, and on
the breaking out of the revolutionary war, the whole was confiscated by
the republican government.
In 1773, her father was appointed barrack master of Fort Augustus, in
Inverness-shire. Here she first met the Rev. James Grant, a young
clergyman of refined mind, sound principle, and correct judgment. At
that time he was chaplain to the garrison, but in 1776, he became the
minister of Laggan, a neighbouring parish, and in 1779, was united in
marriage to Miss Macvicar. In that Highland parish, fifty miles from
Perth, and the same distance from Inverness, they lived contentedly in
the chosen lot of Agur.
Time flowed on characterised by the usual amount of shadow and
sunshine. In 1801, her husband was carried off by consumption; and she
found herself burdened with the care of eight children, to which was
added the pressure of some pecuniary obligations incurred by a too
liberal hospitality. The children inherited the same insidious disease.
Three sank under their mother’s eyes in infancy, and the eldest, who
held a commission in the army, died a few months before his father. Of
twelve sons and daughters only one survived her.
All her certain income was a small pension from the War Office, to
which she was entitled in consequence of her husband having obtained a
military chaplaincy a few years before his death. In these
circumstances, her first step was to take charge of a small farm in the
neighbourhood of Laggan; but this expedient soon failed.
In 1803, she unwillingly removed from Laggan to Woodend, now called
Gartur, two miles south-west of Stirling, a place of unrivalled beauty.
In 1806, we find Mrs. Grant residing in Stirling, so renowned in
Scottish history, and supporting herself and family by literature.
In 1810, Mrs. Grant removed from Stirling to Edinburgh, where she spent
the remainder of her life, distinguished in society for her great
talents, and esteemed for her many virtues. Her object in making the
capital her home, and the circle in which she mingled, are fully
described in her correspondence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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