Ian Ogilvy-Grant, 8th Earl of Seafield facts for kids
Ian Charles Ogilvy-Grant, 8th Earl of Seafield (7 October 1851 – 31 March 1884) was a Scottish nobleman. He is numbered as the 27th Chief of Clan Grant.
Genealogy
Seafield was the only child of John Charles Ogilvy-Grant, 7th Earl of Seafield and his wife the Hon. Caroline Stuart. During his minority he was entitled Viscount Reidhaven and Master of Grant. He succeeded his father as Earl of Seafield and Chief of Grant in 1881.
The main residence for Ian Charles, as for his father and mother, was Cullen House in Cullen; Castle Grant, the traditional seat of the Clan Grant, was also occupied when his Strathspey estates were visited.
As he was unmarried and had no children, by a will made in 1882 Ian Charles left his mother as the heir to his estates: Lady Caroline, the Countess Dowager, therefore was proprietor of the Seafield and Grant Estates until her death in 1911. Meanwhile, the 8th Earl's titles of honour were inherited by his uncle, James Ogilvy-Grant, 9th Earl of Seafield who was otherwise the nearest male heir. The Seafield title was thus for some generations separated from the lands and properties that had maintained it. This situation had been made possible because the 7th Earl, John Charles, had completed the legal procedure of disentailing the estate.
Public life
Ian Charles was educated at Eton, after which on 8 December 1869 he was commissioned as a cornet and sub-lieutenant into the First Regiment of Life Guards; he was promoted lieutenant in October 1871 and retired from the army in 1877.
On succeeding to his father's seat in the House of Lords, Seafield adhered to the Conservatives.
Like his father, Ian Charles was ordained as an elder of the Church of Scotland for the Parish of Inverallan and in the Presbytery of Abernethy. He was due to attend the General Assembly of 1884 as a Commissioner for Abernethy when he died.
Memorials
After the death of her son, Ian Charles, Lady Seafield's priorities as Countess Dowager, besides overseeing the management of her estates, were to 'take steps for the perpetuation of (her son's) memory and that of her husband in schemes of enduring utility'.
The Church of Scotland parish church in Grantown-on-Spey is named 'The Seafield Memorial Church', having been erected (on the site of predecessors) at a cost of £7000 by Caroline Stuart, Countess of Seafield, in memory of both her husband John Charles and her son, Ian Charles; it opened on 1 May 1886.
The 8th Earl of Seafield is buried at the Seafield Mausoleum at Duthil Old Parish Church and Churchyard, just outside the village of Duthil, Inverness-shire.
Note on the names Grant and Ogilvie
The family of Grant of Grant, on succeeding in 1811 to the Earldom of Seafield, first adopted the surname of Grant-Ogilvie, otherwise Grant-Ogilvy. This order was later reversed, so that Lord Cassillis' history, 'The Rulers of Strathspey' (1911) names the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Earls as Grant-Ogilvie but all their successors from Sir James, 9th Earl, as Ogilvie-Grant. Sir William Fraser's 'The Chiefs of Grant' (1884) preferred the style of Grant of Grant and Lord Ogilvie of Deskford and Cullen for both the 5th and 6th Earls; his article on the 7th Earl is named Sir John Charles Grant Ogilvie but the accompanying portrait is named Sir John Charles Ogilvie Grant, Baronet, Seventh Earl of Seafield etc. For the sake of consistency, historical works and articles (including this series) often retrospectively reassign the spelling and order of these family names.
In 2017 The family name of the Earl of Seafield is Ogilvie-Grant according to the Seafield Estates. $
