Sir Archibald Grant, 2nd Baronet, of Monymusk, Aberdeen, was a company speculator and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1722 to 1732. He was expelled from the House of Commons for his involvement in the frauds on the Charitable Corporation, and returned to Scotland where he devoted his time to improving his estate.
Background
Grant was the eldest son of Sir Francis Grant, 1st Baronet, of Cullen of Buchan, Banff, and his first wife Jean Meldrum, daughter of Rev. William Meldrum of Meldrum, Aberdeen. His father, a Lord of Session, with the judicial title of Lord Cullen, had purchased the estate of Monymusk in 1713 after selling his ancestral estate in Banffshire. Grant succeeded to Monymusk and the baronetcy on his father's death in 1726. He passed as a Scottish advocate in 1714, and was subsequently called to the English bar at Lincoln's Inn.
In London, Archibald Grant became involved in share speculation, possibly from the collapse of the South Sea Bubble. He was elected to the Committee of the Charitable Corporation in October 1725. He was in debt from earlier stockjobbing to George Robinson. In October 1727, he joined a Partnership of Five to engage in speculation in the Company's shares. This was managed by Robinson, the other three partners being William Burroughs, William Squire, and John Thomson.
Mines
From his second marriage in 1727, Grant was also concerned in mines at Eyam Edge, Derbyshire and Oden in Castleton, Derbyshire, in which his father in lawCharles Potts had earlier been concerned. These mines were evidently profitable in the earlier years. Later, there were disputes with managers. In 1747, Grant was trying to sell the mines and the Partington estate. The mines were apparently not sold, but operation was clearly hindered by Grant's lack of money. Grant also bought the mines at Strontian in Scotland for a modest sum and sent Derbyshire miners there to develop them in 1729, also a relative of his wife, to manage them. His Charitable Corporation partners were told of some mines in Scotland in which he and Sir Robert Sutton another director was concerned, and proposed that the York Buildings Company should lease them, hoping the enhance the value of its stock. They then bought York Buildings shares, which rose in value. While Grant was in Scotland the other four partners made further share purchases. All this was financed by borrowing money from the Charitable Corporation on false pledges. Ultimately the speculation failed. Unable to pay their debts, Robinson and Thomson absconded. The whole affair was then subject to an investigation by a committee of the House of Commons. Grant was expelled from the House.
Other activities
In 1728, he and his brother-in-law Alexander Garden of Troup leased from the York Buildings Company the Southesk, Marschal, Pitcairn, and most of the Panmure estates for 29 years at £4000 per year.
Later life
After Grant's expulsion from the Commons, he returned to Scotland and devoted his time to improving his Monymusk estate. He supported rural manufactures such as linen. He introduced English agricultural methods, such as keeping land fallow; and English crops, including clover and ryegrass in connection with crop rotation. Grant stood for Aberdeenshire at the 1747 British general election but gave up when he learnt that the Duke of Argyll was supporting a Pelham candidate. When Argyll heard that Newcastle was proposing to make Grant sheriff of Aberdeenshire as a consolation for not being returned for the county, he wrote: ‘This requires great consideration, for the blot in his reputation takes place here as well as in England’. He was not appointed sheriff, but in 1749 he obtained a sinecure post as Keeper of register of Hornings. Grant published two pamphlets on agriculture: The Farmer's New-Year's Gift and The Practical Farmer's Pocket Companion. According to David Hume, planting trees was ‘the only laudable thing he has ever done’.
Family
Grant married four times. By his first wife, Anne, daughter of James Hamilton of Pencaitland, he had two daughters. His second wife, Anne, daughter of Charles Potts of Castleton in Derbyshire, was the mother of his heir Sir Archibald Grant, 3rd Baronet. The third was Elizabeth, widow of James Callander of Jamaica. Finally, he married Jane, widow of Andrew Millar, the London bookseller.
