 1811 - 1865 (54 years)
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| Name |
Smith Isabella |
| Birth |
27 May 1811 |
Inveravon, Banff, Scotland  |
| Gender |
Female |
| Death |
16 Nov 1865 |
| Person ID |
I250 |
My Genealogy |
| Last Modified |
20 Nov 2023 |
| Family |
Grant Rev Peter, b. 1796, Edinburgh d. 4 Jun 1864, Sanday, Isle of Eigg (Age 68 years) |
| Marriage |
26 Aug 1830 |
Parish of Inveravon |
| Children |
| + | 1. Grant Lt. Col. George, b. 6 Aug 1834, Banff d. 2 Oct 1911, Kent (Age 77 years) |
| | 2. Grant Christina, b. 20 Jan 1837, Inveravon, Banff d. 17 Nov 1922 (Age 85 years) |
| | 3. Grant William, b. 5 Mar 1841, Inveravon, Banff d. 20 Oct 1894 (Age 53 years) |
| | 4. Grant Isabella, b. 1846, Inveravon, Banffshire d. 26 Nov 1939, Ringwood in Hampshire (Age 93 years) |
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| Family ID |
F38 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
24 Nov 2012 |
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| Photos
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 | The Manse on Eigg, where Peter and Isabella lived, now falling into disrepair
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 | 1830 marriage record Peter Grant and Isabella Smith
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 | 1851 Census record for Peter and Isabella Grant in the Small Isles
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 | 1841 Census record for Peter and Isabella Grant
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 | 1861 Census for Isabella Grant and family (Peter not there)
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 | 26th Aug 1830 Mr Peter Grant schoolmaster in Tomvulekin and Isabella Smith in Upper Drumin were married
From the Iveravon parish register |
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 | Isle of Eigg Manse from the front
It was built in 1790 and then extended in the 1889 so that was probably when the two wings were added, after the Grant family lived there. It's now derelict inside, and is in a bad state of repair, having been held on to by the last owner of Eigg, Schellenburg, for about 20 years and since sold to an absentee crocter on the island who stores farm equipment in the ground floor. |
 | The Manse on the Isle of Eigg
Eigg Manse viewed from behind with a view over the sea to the mainland. |
 | the Manse on Eigg with whitewash, but starting to fall into disrepair
photo probably from the 1980s
On the Canmore historic buildings website.
Taken from "Western Seaboard: An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Mary Miers, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk |
 | view of the central staircase inside the now derelict Manse on Eigg
taken from the top floor |
 | view of the ground floor inside the now derelict Manse on Eigg
the Manse is now owned by an absentee crofter on the island who uses the ground floor to store farm equipment. |
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| Notes |
- SUMMARY
Isabella was born in the spring of 1811, in the Cairngorms in the north east Scotland, to William Smith a farmer and Christina Grant who was also from a farming family. We don't know anything about her early years, but she was the second eldest of 4 children. As a historical aside, her father's brother George is credited with starting the famous Glenlivet whisky distillery.
In 1830, aged 19, Isabella married Peter Grant, who came from Edinburgh and had moved north to be a teacher in the local area. Peter was aged 34 and is described on the marriage record as a schoolmaster living in Tomvoulin [Tomnavoulin] and Isabella living in Drumin which is just over a mile away. They have 4 children together born in the parish of Inveravon where they married, of whom son George is the significant one to continue this family tree. In the 1841 census Isabella and Peter are living in Inveravon with three children, of whom the youngest is aged 3 months.
In 1848 there is a significant change of direction for the family. Peter joins the Church of Scotland as a Minister, and by the 1851 census he and his family have moved to the West Coast and are living on the Island of Eigg, where Peter has become the Minister to the Small Isles. There are also 4 young servants living with them - a farm servant, herd, and two house servants. The Small Isles Parish was made up of 4 main islands - Rum, Canna, Eigg and Muck - and some smaller islands near them. This is where Isabella and Peter stay for the rest of their lives.
To the casual observer this sounds like an incredibly romantic life, living the Highland life in a rural idyll in a large Manse with the sea always in view. But west coast highland life was hard, the winters were long, most people were subsistent farmers, famine was never far away, and they lived in Eigg during a time of great social upheaval.
From the 1840s to mid 1850s the population of Eigg dropped from about 540 to around 300 due to voluntary and 'assisted' emigration and the clearing of some townships by the owners of the island from 1828-1890, the MacPhersons. There were also famines across the Highlands 1847-54 caused by the failure of the staple potato crop. So this was a terrible time for many, a time of fear, famine, social dislocation and emmigration. There are various books written about this period in Scottish Highland history, and the forces at play are still being debated and re-framed by historians. But it would undoubtedly have been a challenging time for Isabella as the Ministers wife, who would have been part of the upper social class in a small community, but also part of the social fabric of a small place. We don't know what she thought of the changes happening around her as no written records have been found of hers.
We get a glimpse of their family life from a 1998 history of the island - 'Eigg - the story of an island' by Camille Dressler:
"Fishing on Eigg was lagging far behind Muck where the new owner, Captain Swinburne had established a salt depot and equipped the islanders with smacks capable of fishing Rockall, but it was catching up, especially since the arrival of Rev Grant and his son to the parish in 1848. Grant added to his income by catching basking sharks, and island tradition recalls how in the summer months the minister's smack would often be seen to divert it's course in pursuit of a shark whilst on its way to a church service in the other islands!... The Edgeworth diaries made much of the polite social intercourse between the MacPhersons and their tenant farmers: The MacLeans in Kiell, as Kildonan was then called, the Stewarts at Laig, the minister and his family. The schoolmaster and the priest were also guests at Neag na Feannaig where 'reeling in the parlour' provided an agreeable distraction from reading novels and studying botany, when the young Grants occasionally dropped in with a fiddler...
(source: P.88-89 'Eigg the story of an island' by Camille Dressler, 1998, Polygon, Edinburgh.)
In the 1861 Census Peter is not at home (perhaps ministering on another island), but Isabella his wife is there in the Manse on Eigg with 3 of their children (son George having already sailed for India as a Surgeon), as well as a visiting merchant, a ploughman, a farm servant and a domestic servant.
In 1864 Peter dies, while still in post as the Minister.
His wife Isabella died the following year, aged 54, we're not sure where (source for her death is a church record about her husband's career as a priest)
+++++++
Marriage Record 1830:
Inveravon Parish
'The 26th day of August 1830, Mr Peter Grant, Schoolmaster in Tomvoulin and Isabella Smith in Upper Drumin were married.'
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1841 Census record:
Peter Grant, age 40, teacher, lives with Isabella Grant, age 30, in Tamvoulen in the Parish of Inveravon, Banff.
Living with them are children George age 6, Christina age 4, William age 3 months.
1851 Census record:
The Manse, 'Sanderag'/Sandaig?, Small Isles Record:
Peter Grant, (age indecipherable), established minister, born Edinburgh, lives with his wife Isabella age 38, born Banffshire.
Living with them are son William age 10 'at school', and daughter Isabella age 4.
There are also 4 young servants living with them - a famr servant, herd, and two house servants.
1861 census shows Isabella 'minister's wife', aged 49, living in the manse for Small Isles parish with Christiana aged 24, William aged 19, and Isabella Jane aged 14.
Also living with them were 4 servants - Malcolm, Alexander, Margaret and Mary.
It says Isabella and the 3 children were all born in Banffshire. Rev Peter Grant wasn't there for the census.
+++++++
Entry in the record of Scottish Ministers:
'Small Isles or eigg and Canna'
1848 PETER GRANT born 1796
son of George G., writer, and Christine
McRoy; schoolmaster at Glenlivet ;
pres. by Queen Victoria 12th Oct. 1847 ;
adm 20th April 1848 ; died 4th June 1864.
He marr. Isabella Smith, who died 16th
Nov. 1865, aged 54, and had issue? William,
CE born 1841, died 28th Oct. 1894;
Christian, born 1837, died 17th Nov. 1922 ;
George, brigade surgeon, lieut. -colonel in
the Indian Medical Service ; Isabella (marr.
John Grant Robertson, I.C.S.).
[the next minister starts 1864 so Peter must have died in office on Eigg]
source: Fasti Ecclesiĉ Scoticanĉ: the Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation (1915-), Scott, Hew, vol. 7 p. 178
http://archive.org/stream/fastiecclesiaesc00scot#page/176/mode/2up
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