Hay Macdowall Grant ... his life, labours, and teaching

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Contents

^HAP. PAGE

I.— Early Life, .....]

II. — West Indies, ..... 4

Chapter I. Early Life

" Thy childhood smiles oat in the beauty Of trust, of obedience, and trath ; And humble, heroical duty.

Make noble the years of thy youth."— il. C.

" Show your colours," was a favourite exhortation of the late Hay Macdowall Grant of Amdilly. " Show your colours," he used to say in meetings of his own work-people and humble neighbours. " Show your colours, don't be ashamed of Jesus," in private conversation with younger timid believers. " Begin," he wrote to a lady in London life, "to show your colours ; nail them to the mast-head. Be a fool for Christ's sake, and His Holy Spirit will reveal Jesus so near, and so full of love, that you will count the tribulation even to be joyous." Much more by example than even by precept did he teach the lesson. Everywhere and in all places, " in season and out of season " for fourteen years, did this servant of God show the colours of his great Commander. Not in the easiest circumstances, moreover, for during those fourteen years, and for seven years before, his position was one in which, too often, alas ! the colours of the world only are displayed ; those of comfort, respectability, kindliness, and conventional duty.

A

2 EARLY LIFE.

The incidents of this brave and noble life are very few ; — yet it is a life full of strong colour — a life which, by the grace of God, was enabled to transfuse so much colour, light, and energy into other lives, which otherwise would have been cold, and pale, and spiritless, that I cannot apologise for bringing its records and its teaching before the Christian public. Thus, though dead, he may still wave his Saviour's colours through the land.

The following particulars of " Amdilly's " family and early life are communicated by his sister, Mrs. Aitken, widow of the late Kev. Robert Aitken, vicar of Pendeen : —

" Hay Macdowall Grant was born at his parents* seat, Arndilly, in the county of Banff, Scotland, on the 19 th of June 1806, being the fifth son in a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters.

" Their father was the seventh son of Macdowall of Castle Semple and Garthland, a family of ancient and even royal lineage, being descended from Baliol and Montrose, and related to others^of the most ancient Scottish nobility. Hay Macdowall Grant's mother, Mary Eleanora, was the only child and heiress of Colonel Alexander Grant of Arndilly and Edenvilla, in Banffshire, and other property in the West Indies. The marriage of the young heiress to Lieutenant David Macdowall, R.N., yoimger of Castle Semple, took place at the early age of eighteen ; he then, in virtue of the Amdilly entail, adding the name of Grant to his own.

" I can give you but few incidents of my brother's childhood. He was, I know, a very good-tempered and very handsome boy, and in the family he had the corresponding epithet of * Beau Hay.' He was very precocious and apt in his studies, and his tutor, the Rev. John Morrison, afterwards minister of Old Deer, Aberdeenshire, announced to my mother that his young pupil, at ten years of age, was quite fit to enter the University of Aberdeen.

" As for religious training, we were taught to pray morning and evening, — to read the Bible every day before we left our rooms, and again before we retired to rest ; and on Sundays my mother read the Church service to us all assembled, for

EARLY LIFE. 3

we were fifteen miles of bad road from any Episcopal Church. On very fine mornings, however, some of us went occasionally to the Scotch Church at Kothes.

" One day, when quite a small boy, a Christian lady visiting at Amdilly, spoke to Hay of the love of God to him, which so impressed him that, filled with delight, he rushed out to get by himself, and ran down to the river shouting, * God loves me ! God loves me ! ' This incident he told me himself at Pendeen.

" Hay was intended by his parents for the English Bar. After his Aberdeen education was finished, where he took the degree of M.A. when only fifteen years of age, and was considered an e^Kcellent student, he was sent with his tutor to Blois, in France, to acquire a more practical knowledge of the French language. On his return to England he went to Mr. Young, a private tutor at Heathfield, near Tunbridge Wells, to prepare for Oxford. When he was nearly eighteen, however, his father being still abroad, his mother judged it better for him to be doing something than losing time in idleness, and therefore placed him, though without salary, in the mercantile house of Baillie, Ames, and Co., Bristol, where he soon became esteemed and trusted. It was there that the rapid illness and death of two beloved brothers brought him to the knowledge of his own sinful and dangerous condition, and led him to seek the pardoning mercy of his God and Saviour; and this state of soul was greatly advanced and confirmed by occasionally attending the ministrations of Robert Hall, then of Bristol, but formerly of Leicester, one of the most noted preachers of the day. At twenty, an early and imprudent marriage (but the particulars of which exhibited in him the same purity of mind and rectitude of principle which had distinguished him from his youth) brought him and his wife into most trying circumstances, which were met and borne with quiet and patient endurance."

On the 8th Januaiy 1827, Hay Ma,cdowall Grant was

united in marriage to Louisa Mary, daughter of Paton,

Esq. ; and when he wrote to his mother announcing the imprudent and precipitate event, she exclaimed, nearly fainting, '' This is the first sore heart that my beloved Hay has ever given me," — ^an expressive tribute to the blamelessness of his early life.

I find this notice recorded in his diary long after: — "1857, Jan. 8th. Our marriage day thirty years ago. Alas, Lord, how unprofitably have I spent it ; though it was at that time that I came to a knowledge of my Saviour."

Chapter II. The West Indies

. . " Where the feathery palm-trees rise And the date grows ripe under sanny skies. Amidst the green islands of glittering seas, Where fragrant forests perfome the breeze, And strange, bright birds on their starry wings Bear the rich hues of all glorious things." — Mrs. Hemaks.

Hay Macdowall Grant's marriage changed his prospects, and led to the abandonment of the profession for which he had been educated. Mercantile employment, which had at first been intended as a merely temporary occupation, became after this the object of his earnest attention. This led him into a field of labour very different from the Highland heather and Speyside air amidst which his early days had been passed. He spent the greater part of twenty-two years in the West Indies, where the precocious boy and the industrious student rapidly ripened into a first-rate man of business; and from many sources we find that he leffc his mark in a very decided and characteristic manner wherever his varied work called him. When he was about twenty-three years of age, Messrs. Baillie and Ames, requiring a person on whom they could depend, to send out to St. Vincent to undertake the charge of some estates there, chose for that purpose their youthful clerk. He accordingly went there in 1830, accompanied by Mrs. Grant. The estates principally requiring his care were those of Prince de Polignac (the prime minister of Charles x.), who had married a Scotch heiress, by whom a large W J' Indian property had come into his possession. Thus rapidly did Mr. Grant's steady work and energy win for him a good position. In 1835 I find many incidental notices of " H. M. Grant " and " Louisa Grant '* in the private journal^ of Mr. Naish, a young Bristol gentleman belonging to the Society of Friends, who spent that year in St. Vincent for the benefit of his health, and who took out with him letters of introduction to Mr. and Mrs. Grant, then residing at Calder House, whose hospitality seems to have been unbounded. There are many notices of visits spent in the midst of fine scenery, pic-nics, abundant literature, chess, and good music ; Mrs. Grant herself being an accomplished musician. There is also the mention of the adoption by Mr. Grant " of a little girl named Helen Gurley — ^the orphan child of a planter, once in good circumstances, but who died leaving four orphans totally unprovided for, and who, but for the kindness of their friends, must almost have been starved."

It was about this time that the following characteristic incident occurred, which I quote from his sister's narrative. While Mr. Grant " was fiUing the post of military secretary to the Lieutenant Governor, in the absence of the Governor and his secretary, he was grossly insulted by a drunken roic4, who then challenged him, according to the custom of those days, to fight a duel. Hay refused, simply stating that as a Christian he could not. This brought on him obloquy and reproaches without measure. The Lieutenant Governor said * he must fight ' or give up his post ; all his intimate friends said he * must fight ;' his wife said he * must fight, or he would be for ever disgraced ' — ^but Hay was firm ; he could give up all their regard, but he could not give up his God. This incident he repeated to me, in answer to my inquiries, on his dying bed. But it ended in his persecutor being ruined, overwhelmed with shame, and sunk in the abject

^ Kindly placed at my disposal by his nephew, Edmund Leonard Naish, Esq., Eirklees, Bristol.

misery of a jail ; from which the hand of him he had so deeply injured was the only one outstretched to deliver him ; and from which his benefactor finally had the satisfaction of rescuing him ; binding him over to give up his bad habits, and putting him in the way of obtaining his living more reputably."

Mr. Grant took an active part in the important transactions of 1838. His nephew, the Kev. W. Hay Aitken, writes, "I remember my uncle telling me that his hair turned white in the course of a fortnight at the commencement of the apprenticeship which preceded the emancipation. He had taken a decided part in the Colonial Council in pleading for the freedom of the slaves, and in preparing the local measures required to meet the action of the Home Government. This, as well as his kindness and generosity, made him a great favourite with the negroes throughout the island. During a period of agitation, idleness, and unmanageableness of the negroes, he went from estate to estate, calming their minds and inducing them to work. But so great was the pressure of anxiety, that he bore the mark of it in his prematurely white hair from that day forward."

The following letter gives an interesting sketch of the day itself, which through God's mercy, happily proved all the fears to be groundless, which had been entertained.

<* Calder, August 1, 1S38.

"I have had but little spare time on my hands whilst preparing and arranging matters for the great change which takes place in our population this day. As it is, I have been up the greater part of the night writing letters and accounts; and do not feel this morning as if the boon of freedom were extended to myself; for weariness has laid a heavy hand upon me, both in mind and body. The day has dawned both wet and boisterous, which is unfortunate for the many who intended to attend public worship this day, to thank the Almighty for the entire abolition of slavery in this colony. I feel assured that had the day been fine, every church and chapel would have been crowded by happy black faces at any rate ; and why not by happy white ones too 1 Only because men having become reconciled by avarice and interest to an evil custom, shut their eyes to the enormity of an evil of which the gain is great. Yes, I think for my part that ere six months are passed, hardly one person will be found desirous of returning to the old system ; and people will wonder in another year how emancipation ever seemed so great a bugbear. I am happy to say that the negroes in this quarter show a most excellent disposition generally, and everything augurs well for a happy termination to the apprenticeship system, and a prosperous commencement to that of freedom. I have had a strong proof of what I state, having been induced to free six hundred on ^ve estates on the 21st of July last, who have all (with seven exceptions only) remained working quietly and steadily during the last ten days for wages, and done more work during that time than for two weeks previously. I wish you could have seen all the people of the estates to which I allude, dining with Louisa and me at Crossover, when we visited them; all dressed neatly, some gaudily, some even elegantly, eating with knives and forks, and conducting themselves with far more propriety than any equal number of peasantry whom you could find in the agricultural districts of England."

The summer of 1846 found them again in England, on their third visit, and the following letter shows the struggle between Mr. Grant's protectionist principles, aided doubtless by personal loss from free trade, and his kindly consideration and never-failing thought for others : —

" 78 MoBELAin> Place, Southampton, June 8, 1846.

" My DEAREST M. — I think most of my time in England must be spent in London, as in the present state of West Indian affairs I must work for our living, and I have opportunities by being there. If protection to sugar is done away, and slave-manufactured sugar is admitted, many West Indian proprietors will be entirely ruined, and few will obtain any return from their estates. I fear the impending evil will arrive in the course of a couple of years, and will certainly at once render useless a great deal of my labour in the West Indies. However, I cannot help approving of the measures of Government which do away with protection in food and the necessaries of life, and benefit a mass of people at the expense of a few individuals — even though I myself am one of the sufferers. I only hope that they will give us the three years' grace given to English agriculturists, to enable us to prepare for so great a change."

Hay Macdowall Grant was not satisfied with the faithful discharge of his mercantile duties, and with efforts to provide an honourable competence for himself and his wife ; he set himself sedulously to care for the moral, physical, and spiritual necessities of the negroes under his charge. One of his oldest and most valued friends, W. Porter, Esq., thus writes: —

** Mr. Grant early evinced strong religious principles and a desire to benefit others, both by precept and example. As there was no church or place of worship near the estates he was in charge of, he had a chapel erected on the Calder Estate; at first the Wesleyan ministers officiated every second Sunday, while he read prayers and delivered a lecture or sermon on the alternate Sunday, until a clergyman could be procured. The emancipation of the slaves came into operation on the 1st of August 1838: at this time Sir George Taylor was the Governor. Sir George, soon discovering Mi. Grant's talents and aptitude for business, and that he would be a very efficient and useful member of the Board of Council, got him appointed, and from that period until his retirement to Scotland, he continued a very prominent and efficient member. For many years he acted as Assistant-Judge, and, on more than one occasion, during the temporary Absence of the Chief Judge, he officiated in that capacity, with satisfaction to the community, and, I may also add, to the Bar. His memory will long be cherished and respected as one of the most useful members of society in that colony. During the latter years of his stay in St. Vincent, he resided at Brighton Estate, a property which he purchased in 1842."

Mr. Grant was a practical " abstainer," the origin of which showed his characteristic self-denial. He related it thus to his nephew many years after. " There was on my estate in the West Indies a wretched old drunken negro rat-catcher ; very clever at his business when sober, but only sober at rare and uncertain intervals. I felt concerned for the poor old man, as I saw that drink was dragging him, body and soul, down to perdition, and I spoke very earnestly to him, urging him to become a teetotaller, as that seemed to me his only chance. I was not a little taken aback when the old man suddenly turned round upon me with, * All very well for massa tell dis poor nigger to give up his drop o' rum, when massa sit at dinner and drink him wine.' And I suppose the old man was more taken aback still, when I replied, * Look here, Sambo, if you will give up the rum, I will give up the wine.' The poor old man's heart was touched by such an oflFer coming from such a quarter, and then and there we both took the pledge together." Mr. Hay Aitken adds, " I believe the old man kept it and was rescued from ruin. Not many years ago, I remember the impression this story produced upon an officer staying at ArndHly, who was quite a man of the world, and somewhat disposed to be sceptical. 'Most astonishing man, that uncle of yours' (I remember he said to me) ; ' I never met such a man in the whole course of my life. What do you think he told me after dinner to-day 1 I had been asking him why he took no wine, and he told me that he gave it up many years ago for the sake of an old drunken rat-catcher. Now just think of a man giving up his wine for a nigger and a rat-catcher ! ' I may add that the impression was evidently not one of scorn, but of profound respect for one who could be so consistent and true to his profession."

During his long residence in the West Indies, Mr. Grant regularly sent home £60 a year for the poor of Boharm and Bothes, and this was entirely from the kindly feelings and recollections of " auld lang syne ; " for at that time nothing could have been more unlikely than that he should ever live among them as their personal friend and proprietor. At the same time, it is stated that to any of his relatives requiring assistance his help was ever prompt, even when his own means were insufficient and decreasing.

Mr. Grant's labours, however, were not confined to St. Vincent. A Moravian missionary, the iRev. J. K. Edgehill, of Barbadoes, gives a pleasing account of his work in that island. He says, " Sometimes I have been out with him four nights in the week at meetings, returning after twelve o'clock at night, and that when he had been hard at work all day. Of his addresses it is enough for me to say that they were Christian appeals, in truly eloquent terms, to persons of all ages, of all classes, and both sexes. I know one young man who was won from intemperance by his advocacy, and who yet lives to be a blessing to his family. One poor woman, who was degraded in every sense of the term, was recovered, became converted, and died happily. His stirring temperance addresses are remembered now by hundreds all over the island.

" Mr. Grant was a friend to popular education. When he first came to Barbadoes, the education of the poor received very little attention. Many still believed that it was not safe to instruct the people, and the Legislature had done little or nothing to promote education. A Christian worker had opened a day-school for poor children, and maintained a Sunday-school for others. Mr. Grant became acquainted with the fact, and many an hour he spent among the little ones in those schools, telling them of the love of Jesus, and giving them useful knowledge for future days. It was pleasant to see him sitting in the midst of a group of black children, hearing them read God's Word, and while their bright eyes sparkled with pleasure to behold him, to mark with what simplicity he imparted the truth to them.

" And now he is gone. I know few men of whom it can be more truly said, * He was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith,' and by his instrumentality ' much people was added unto the Lord/ 'Being dead, he yet speaketh.* "

All these records of Mr. Grant's youth and earlier manhood show very satisfactorily that, when more entirely devoted to the work of his God, he laid at the Master's feet a mind of more than ordinary strength, energy, and clearness, and very special gifts of personal influence.

The climate of the West Indies had much affected the health both of Mr. and Mrs. Grant, and probably laid the foundation of the maladies from which both suffered to the end of their lives. In 1847 it again became necessary to seek change of air, and, first returning to England, they went to Carlsbad, by Ostend, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne, and Wiesbaden. There is a marked difference between the diary of this period and the one of later years. Although unwearied in teaching and preaching to the negroes, and giving temperance lectures to the outwardly degraded, Mr. Grant had no idea at this time of " showing his colours " in society, or of seeking after individual souls. He used afterwards to say that his ambition then was to be a "closet Christian;" — partly from his natural reserve, which made any confession of deep religious feeling exceedingly difficult. There was undoubtedly also a period of spiritual declension, although accompanied by some struggle after, and yearning for, a better and happier condition. His earlier diary contains characteristic touches of kindliness, minute attention to details, candid confession of little faults, and devotion to his suffering wife; but there is not a word of work for, or even interest about souls, while he freely entered into whatever worldly amusements came in his way.

Mr. Grant's visit to Carlsbad, in 1847, was principally interesting to him as laying the foundation of several friendships which continued to the end of his life. From some notes sent me by one of these friends, I extract the following, showing how successfully Mr. Grant at this time managed to hide his colours.

"I met Mr. and Mrs. Macdowall Grant at Carlsbad, in 1847. He was a remarkably aristocratic-looking man, pleasing and courteous in manner, and won all hearts by his gentleness and kindness. In public worship on the Lord's day, his demeanour was unmistakably devotional, and he was glad to have the loan of religious books, which he certainly read, but could not be induced to talk over their contents. Long afterwards, when I reminded him of this, he said, * I remember it well, — it was just pride ! ' "

In the summer of 1848, Mr. Grant returned to his work in the West Indies, leaving his wife and her negro maid in Paris. While there they were surprised by the Kevolution of that celebrated year of shaken dynasties. Hearing some rumours of expected dmeutes, my husband (Mr. Gordon), who was in Paris at the time, went out one day to inspect " the situation,'' and happened to see the formation of the first barricade, which was commenced with the cab of an English lady, whom the insurgents, with the utmost politeness, handed out of it. It was not till long after, at the beginning of a close friendship and union in work with her husband, that Mr. Gordon discovered that the lady of the barricade was Mrs. Grant of Amdilly. Her escape was greatly hindered by her being intrusted with the portable valuables of many wealthy refugees ; she managed, however, to reach England, after many misadventures, and thence she sailed to rejoin her husband.

Life and work at Brighton Estate were becoming darker and more difficult. The following letter refers to this period, and shows a different state of affairs from the prosperity of the old Calder home : —

** Brighton Estate, St. Vincent, " Dec. 8, 1848.

"My dearest M., — Since I came back to this country (now a year ago) I have had little else than one continued series of annoyances in worldly matters, with heavy debts and ruin staring me in the face, and needing constant exertion to try and save myself. I never could have supposed that any set of ministers would be mad enough to ruin our colonies where they had established freedom, and foster foreign states where slavery exists, as these have done.

Louisa and I often say that if we had a couple of hundreds a year at home it would be better than sJl this constant worry and toil ; more especially when the end of the year, as of late, shows only a deeper plunge in the mire. I have, however, embarked my all in the country, and must stand or fall by it. From six in the morning till six at night it is now continued striving; and not mere headwork, but often actual labour to induce our lazy people to exert themselves. As for Louisa, she also works away wonderfully — sweeps her room, makes her bed, and, thank God, is in much better health than she has known for years before. I think the necessity for exertion does her good. It is not that we could not have servants, but they are so insolent and independent that they will scarcely bear to be spoken to."

The time of release from hard work and unpleasant surroundings was, however, at hand, and occurred in a very unexpected manner.

Chapter III

*' Our o'wii life seemed then But as an arrow flying in the dark.

Without an aim — a most unwelcome gift. . . . Meanwhile, the joy whereby we ought to live, Neglected or unheeded, disappeared." — Trench.

In 1849, William Grant Macdowall of Amdilly was attacked by cholera, and died after a short illness, leaving two daughters. This event led some members of the family to examine the deed of entail ; and, contrary to former interpretations, it was determined by legal authorities that the right of succession to the estate of Amdilly belonged to the male heirs of that generation, to the exclusion for the time of the more direct female heirs. Thus Hay Macdowall Grant was unexpectedly called home to take possession of his maternal inheritance. The tenantry hailed with satisfaction the return of one who, even in distant lands, had never forgotten them ; and this tie of good- will and mutual interest remained unbroken to the end, deepening in many cases into rare devotedness of attachment.

Mr. and Mrs. Macdowall Grant bade a final farewell to the "West Indies in June 1849, and arrived at Amdilly on the 6th of August.

The house required many repairs, and Mr. Grant commenced these, along with the present picturesque conservatory and frontage of the finely-situated mansion, close to a sweep of the noble river, and just below the shadows of Ben Aigen. It was not, therefore, till the summer of 1850 that they finally took possession of Arndilly.

In 1851 a Christian friend paid a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Grant, and thus records her impressions :—

" Five or six nieces and nephews were in the house, and all clustered around * dear uncle Hay ' with marked devotion, quite as loving children to a loving parent. There was no evening family worship, but in the morning the household were assembled, when God's Word and a scriptural prayer were read by Mr. Grant in his own beautiful tone of voice. On the first morning after family worship, Mrs. Grant said to me, * Dear Hay does not pray extempore since we came to Arndilly. To you, as a dear friend, I can't help saying that he has become entangled with the world. Oh ! it is such a pity, and we have now no evening woi^hip.' "

" There was a card-table, Mrs. Grant's pretty music, ajid I have a vivid remembrance of Mr. Grant's charming reading aloud of poetry, in which he delighted. During various walks and drives we had a good deal of conversation on the subject of intemperance. Mr. Grant mentioned that he was addressing the people on the terrible evils of this sin. I could not help saying, * So far that is well ; but unless the Gospel is at the same time declared, little or no good will follow.' He replied, * Oh, I do try to speak the truth also ; but the whisky mania must be dealt with first, and then minds will be clear to receive the Gospel.' When we left Arndilly, after five days of most pleasant intercourse with Mr. and Mrs. Grant, it was with the feeling that, though he was peculiarly interesting, yet that Mrs. Grant was more advanced in the truth than he was."