Author Topic: Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820  (Read 1528 times)

Offline mgscott

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Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820
« on: Saturday 23 June 18 02:03 BST (UK) »
My wife's direct ancestor, Nathaniel Grant was born c1753 and died 29 Aug 1820, interred in Elgin Cathedral.  I have been researching my wife's family tree for many years.  We have visited Scotland from Canada several times...including Elgin.  But recently I was very happy to find online records for the Moray/Heritage records.  Nathaniel does show up in these records and his occupation is listed as a soldier. My question is what service/regiment he might have been part of..so I can start looking for his records there?

thanks
Scott-Traquair, Catslacknowe, Ashkirk, Sco
Stutt-Co Fermanagh and Tyrone, Ulster, NI
Newton-North Plantagenet(CAN), Ireland
Grieve-Roberton, Lilliesleaf Sco
Hodgins-Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, Ire
Elliot-Canonbie, Bogra, Holmhead, Annan, Sco and Egremont Engl
Little-Canonbie Sco,  Kingsbridgeford, Thirlwall, Wallasey Eng
McAlister-Louth Co., Queen's Co. Ire
Smith-Whitehaven Eng

Offline barryd

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Re: Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820
« Reply #1 on: Saturday 23 June 18 04:17 BST (UK) »
Elgin Cathedral was/is a ruin. A Roman Catholic Cathedral. Nathaniel Grant sounds like he was an officer in the army to be buried in the Cathedral. I found no evidence of his death on ScotlandsPeople 1820,

Offline mgscott

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Re: Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820
« Reply #2 on: Saturday 23 June 18 05:07 BST (UK) »
thanks....you say he was likely an officer in the army.  i don't know the local history so which regiment/army were up there in those days?

here's link to heritage record providing this info.
http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/people/people_report_view.asp?REF_ID=NM023398
Scott-Traquair, Catslacknowe, Ashkirk, Sco
Stutt-Co Fermanagh and Tyrone, Ulster, NI
Newton-North Plantagenet(CAN), Ireland
Grieve-Roberton, Lilliesleaf Sco
Hodgins-Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, Ire
Elliot-Canonbie, Bogra, Holmhead, Annan, Sco and Egremont Engl
Little-Canonbie Sco,  Kingsbridgeford, Thirlwall, Wallasey Eng
McAlister-Louth Co., Queen's Co. Ire
Smith-Whitehaven Eng

Offline Forfarian

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Re: Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820
« Reply #3 on: Saturday 23 June 18 08:51 BST (UK) »
Elgin Cathedral was/is a ruin. A Roman Catholic Cathedral. Nathaniel Grant sounds like he was an officer in the army to be buried in the Cathedral. 
Yes, you are perfectly correct.

Elgin Cathedral was originally a Roman Catholic cathedral, like all the ancient cathedrals in Scotland (St Magnus, Dornoch, St Machar, Dunkeld, Dunblane, St Andrews, Brechin, St Giles, St Mungo and St Moluag - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cathedrals_in_Scotland) which have been protestant places of worship since the 17th century. It was built in the 13th century, 300+ years before the Reformation. The last RC service held there was in 1594, and the building has been in ruins since the 18th century.

However its graveyard remained in use as the only burial ground in the town of Elgin until the 19th century. Everyone who was buried in Elgin in 1820 would have been buried there, regardless of their rank or religious affiliation.

So not only can you make no assumptions about the religion of people buried there, you can make no assumptions about their standing in society.

The existence of a gravestone would suggest that the person commemorated on it was wealthy enough, or had wealthy enough relatives, to afford the cost of a stone. The information in the link provided by mgscott above refers to the listing in the Elgin Parish Register, and it does not suggest that there is a stone.

Scotland's People does have this burial in its pre-1855 deaths index, but spells his given name Nathanael, so if you were looking for Nathaniel you would not have found it.
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.


Offline Forfarian

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Re: Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820
« Reply #4 on: Saturday 23 June 18 10:19 BST (UK) »
It also occurs to me that 'soldier' normally means a non-commissioned soldier; commissioned officers of the rank of Captain and above are often so described in the Elgin burial records.

To check this I went to http://libindx.moray.gov.uk/mainmenu.asp and searched for anyone with occupation Captain or Major who died in Elgin between 1810 and 1829, and sure enough there were burials of two Captains and three Majors in the Elgin Parish Register. I also looked for Sergeants but found none in the extracts from Elgin Parish Register.

So I think it is reasonable to suppose that Nathaniel Grant was an ordinary soldier rather than an officer.

FindMyPast has a record of a Nathaniel Grant who was discharged from the Army on 11 September 1810 at Fort George. He said he was born at Cromdale, Inverness-shire and as he had served 30 years and 6 months after the age of 18 he must have been at least 48 in 1810. On the face of it that's about 9 years too young to be the one who died in Elgin in 1820, but he could have enlisted when he was in his 20s, and there's no guarantee that the age in the burial record is accurate, so maybe this is your man?
Never trust anything you find online (especially submitted trees and transcriptions on Ancestry, MyHeritage, FindMyPast and other commercial web sites) unless it's an image of an original document - and even then be wary because errors can and do occur.

Offline mgscott

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Re: Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820
« Reply #5 on: Saturday 23 June 18 18:11 BST (UK) »
It's wonderful to wake up here in Canada and enjoy my morning coffee whilst reading your entries. Thanks so much for your help.

I did look up Nathaniel Grant's death in ScotlandsPeople and there is an wonderuful image of the church record.  Age 67 in 1820 and name spelled Nathanael.

Is it a leap of logic to say that as our Nathanael was listed as soldier in those days would mean he was part of the 72nd Highlanders from Fort George?  too much of a leap?

Scott-Traquair, Catslacknowe, Ashkirk, Sco
Stutt-Co Fermanagh and Tyrone, Ulster, NI
Newton-North Plantagenet(CAN), Ireland
Grieve-Roberton, Lilliesleaf Sco
Hodgins-Cloughjordan, Co Tipperary, Ire
Elliot-Canonbie, Bogra, Holmhead, Annan, Sco and Egremont Engl
Little-Canonbie Sco,  Kingsbridgeford, Thirlwall, Wallasey Eng
McAlister-Louth Co., Queen's Co. Ire
Smith-Whitehaven Eng

Offline DonM

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Re: Nathaniel Grant was a soldier in Elgin buried in Elgin Cathedral, 1820
« Reply #6 on: Saturday 23 June 18 18:57 BST (UK) »
Try here for his pension records which will give you his regiment plus more.

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/results/r?_q=Nathaniel+Grant

Don
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