Elizabeth Grant

Elizabeth Grant (1797-1885) was born in Edinburgh’s fashionable New Town. The comfort of a wealthy upbringing was ended by the trauma of a broken engagement, followed by the disastrous failure of her father’s career. Forced to retreat to their Highland home, Elizabeth and both her sisters wrote articles for the popular magazines of the day to generate some income. In 1827 the family left Scotland for India when her father was appointed to a Judgeship in Bombay. Here Elizabeth met and married Colonel Henry Smith, seventeen years her senior. They lived at Baltiboys, her husband’s newly inherited estate situated near Dublin, where she took the lead role in managing and improving their impoverished estate. Between 1845 and 1854 she wrote her Memoirs for her family’s pleasure; these were later edited and published by her niece.