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 THEIR AUTHORS AND ORIGIN. 153

JAMES GRANT. DIED 1785.

THE date of James Grant s birth is not ascertained. His parents, after giving him a sound religious education, apprenticed him to an ironmonger in Edinburgh, where he afterwards carried on a business on his own account during the greater part of his life. In 1731 he married his first wife. This union continued till her death, in 1771, and during this period several children were born. In 1779 Mr. Grant married his second wife, who survived him. She was a daughter of the Eev. Mr. Plenderleath, one of the ministers of the Tolbooth Church, Edinburgh.

Mr. Grant s high character as a man of business talent, unswerv ing integrity, and Christian benevolence, commended him to the notice of his fellow-citizens, and he was repeatedly appointed a member of the Town Council. In 1746 and 1747 he held the office of Treasurer to the Town Council of Edinburgh ; in 1749 and 1752 he was elected to the Magistracy, and during 1754 and 1755 he served as Dean of Guild. He was a member of the Established Church of Scotland, and belonged to the congregation of the Tolbooth Church ; and his religious principles were so decided that he paid a fine rather than attend the services of a city church, where, as he believed, the Gospel was not preached. If he had accepted the office of Lord Provost, or Chief Magistrate, he would have been obliged to have attended that church regularly. Hence he declined those highest offices when they were open to him.

Mr. Grant was a friend of good men, and an advocate and sup porter of pious and benevolent institutions. In particular, he took a deep interest in the Orphan Hospital in Edinburgh an institution established in 1738, and subsequently much increased by the exertions of the Eev. George Whitefield. To this institu tion Mr. Grant devoted the profits of the first and second editions of his poems. For many years he was a great sufferer, and during the latter part of his life his sufferings were very severe ; but he bore all with patience, and at the close spoke of himself as

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