Francis William Ogilvy-Grant, 10th Earl of Seafield

The Earl of Seafield
The 10th Earl of Seafield
Born	9 March 1847 Ireland
Died	3 December 1888 (aged 41) Oamaru, New Zealand
Cause of death	heart condition
Resting place	Oamaru Old Cemetery
Title	10th Earl of Seafield
Tenure	5 June – 3 December 1888
Other titles	2nd Baron Strathspey
Residence	Oamaru
Predecessor	James Ogilvy-Grant
Successor	James Ogilvie-Grant
Issue	James Ogilvie-Grant
Parents	James Ogilvy-Grant
Occupation	farmer

Francis William Ogilvy-Grant, 10th Earl of Seafield and 2nd Baron Strathspey (9 March 1847 – 3 December 1888), was a Scottish peer who lived most of his adult life in New Zealand. He was styled Viscount Reidhaven from 1884 to 1888.

Early life

Seafield was born in Ireland in 1847.^[1] He was the eldest son of James Ogilvy-Grant, 9th Earl of Seafield and Caroline Louisa Evans, the first of his father's three wives.^[2][3] His mother died on 6 February 1850.^[4] After his education, he served as a midshipman for the Royal Navy and then joined the merchant navy.^[1]

Life in New Zealand

Seafield arrived in New Zealand in 1870.^[5] He bought a farm in the Waiareka Valley in a locality known as Te Aneraki^[6] to the west of Oamaru in North Otago. He lost his money through his farming pursuits, and from the late 1870s worked as a labourer in fencing or other available tasks.^[1] Some time after the marriage, the family moved to Oamaru.^[6]

He stood twice for election in the Oamaru electorate to the New Zealand House of Representatives. The first time, he contested the 1884 election against the incumbent, Samuel Shrimski. When Shrimski was appointed to the Legislative Council in 1885, Seafield contested the resulting 1885 by-election, but lost against Thomas Hislop.^[1]

Family

He married his first cousin (her father and his mother were brother and sister), Ann Trevor Corry Evans, on 24 November 1874, at The Bethel in Otago.^[7] She was the daughter of Major George Thomas Evans and Louisa Barbara Corry.^[7] They had seven children; four girls and three boys.^[1] Their youngest daughter, Nina Geraldine (1884–1951), married Sir Lees Knowles, 1st Baronet in 1915.^[8]

His cousin, Ian Ogilvy-Grant, 8th Earl of Seafield, died in 1884, and the title devolved to his father. As the heir apparent to the earldom, Seafield became Viscount Reidhaven. When his father died on 5 June 1888, he became the Earl of Seafield in the Peerage of Scotland. A subsidiary title was Baron Strathspey in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.^[2]

Seafield died on 3 December 1888 from a heart condition.^[2] He is buried at the Oamaru Old Cemetery.^[9] He was succeeded by his oldest son in the earldom, James Ogilvie-Grant, 11th Earl of Seafield, who at the time was twelve years old.^[2] The 11th Earl was fatally wounded in WWI in 1915, and was succeeded in the barony of Strathspey, the baronetcy of Colquhoun and as Chief of Clan Grant by his younger brother Hon. Trevor Ogilvie Grant.^[10] The earldom and the other subsidiary Scottish peerages could be passed on to female heirs, and were inherited by the daughter of the 11th Earl, Nina Caroline Studley-Herbert.^[10]

After the 10th Earl had died, the dowager countess lived for some time in Auckland and for some time in Tauranga before moving to England.^[11][12] She died at Brighton on 16 October 1935.^[11]

References

1. "Death of the Earl of Seafield". Otago Witness (1933). 7 December 1888. p. 29. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
2. "Death of the Earl of Seafield". The Oamaru Mail X (4282). 3 December 1888. p. 2. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
3. Lundy, Darryl. "Lt.-Col. James Ogilvie-Grant, 9th Earl of Seafield". The Peerage. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
4. Lundy, Darryl. "Caroline Louisa Evans". The Peerage. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
5. "Lady Pauline Ogilvie-Grant Nicholson; Aristocrat". The Herald. 5 February 2010. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
6. "Death of Countess". The New Zealand Herald. LXXII (22246). 22 October 1935. p. 10. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
7. "Marriage". North Otago Times XXI (999). 28 November 1874. p. 2. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
8. "Obituary". The Press LXIV (19485). 5 December 1928. p. 16. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
9. "Cemeteries Burial Search". Waitaki District. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
10. "Death of Lord Seafield". The Evening Post XCI (5). 7 January 1916. p. 3. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
11. "Dowager Countess". Auckland Star LXVI (250). 22 October 1935. p. 3. Retrieved 14 October 2014.
12. "The Bay of Plenty Times and Thames Valley Warden". Bay of Plenty Times XXXI (4850). 15 January 1906. p. 2. Retrieved 15 October 2014.