Frederick Augustus Grant of One Tree Hill

Frederick Augustus Grant, third son of Alexander (Sandy) Grant and Helen Thorold was born in 1831.

He was the younger brother of Alexander William Thorold Grant and James Fawcett Grant.  Alexander, who had ventured to South Australia in the very earliest days of the colony and successfully built up a considerable enterprise in the pastoral industry, had been joined in South Australia by his brother James some time in the early 1850s.  It is not clear exactly when James headed north to help run the Kanyaka and Coonatto leases, or whether his subsequent disappearance and early death led to the decision for Frederick to take his place to assist with managing the family interests.

In November 1852 the young Frederick aged 21years, married Arabella Katherine Clay (also aged 21years) at St Martin’s in the Field in London.  They set sail for South Australia soon after, to arrive some time in 1853.  That same year, the birth of their first child James Erskine was recorded at South Para on the 22^nd of December 1853. The birth of a second child, a daughter, was registered at Munno Para East Council area in 1855. Arabella at least was still in One Tree Hill at that time, although eight children, four girls and four boys. 

It appears that whilst the northern properties were being successfully managed, the One Tree Hill interests, or at least part of them, were still being maintained, with the Grant brothers holding their interest in the Tyeka property whilst at the same time being in partnership with Philip Butler at Yattalunga.  For some time during these years in One Tree Hill and the northern areas Frederick also held a commission as Justice of the Peace.

Alexander had formed partnerships with several other OTH identities over the years that he had been building up his rural interests.  He was recorded as forming a partnership of sorts with Joseph Gould at Little Para in the 1840’s and this seems quite logical as both were building up their stock and buying or leasing land in the area at that time.  Grant also formed a partnership with a man called Stokes who seems to have been involved with him from the very early days.  Stokes later took over the management of the northern leases at Coonatto and Kanyaka after a man called Phillips left. 

The partnership with Philip Butler at Yattalunga seems to have endured for some years. Sir Richard Butler, a well-known parliamentarian and nephew of Philip Butler (who for a time worked for and lived with his uncle) wrote in an obituary after Grant’s death that he had personally known Fred Grant and well remembered the friendship between him and his uncle.

In November 1868, after the newly elected Premier Henry Strangways proposal that land for agricultural purposes be sold on credit, was debated in Parliament, “The Waste Lands Amendment Act” (sometimes known as the Strangways Act) was passed in January 1869.    Pastoralists who had been leasing land for their sheep runs on easy terms for many years were given six months notice of the resumption of their Leases.    This meant that the Grant Family leases of Kanyaka and Coonatto were withdrawn and they needed to find alternative pastoral properties. Up until that time the Grant brothers’ partnership, still a partnership although Alexander Grant had returned to England in 1858, had been known throughout the State “as one of the most enterprising and successful of all northern pastoral concerns of that period.”  It was also said that    “The wholesale confiscation of the northern leaseholds practically ended the career of this firm.”  In fact although the Grants purchased land further north they seem not to have prospered from that time onwards.      

In the early 1870s, Philip Butler retired to England and the Yattalunga property was leased by his business partner Frederick Grant and later by another business partner, William Briggs Sells.  In 1874, during this time at Yattalunga, Arabella Grant died.  Her remains were buried in the Anglican cemetery in Gawler and her grave is still very prominent there.  After the death of his wife, Frederick resided in Prospect and subsequently in Glenelg and East Adelaide before he finally returned to England in 1883.   He died there in 1922, aged 91 years.  An obituary from Sir Richard Butler, “Like One Who knew him (another obituary)  states that he knew Grant for well over half a century and during a visit to England 18 months before Grant’s death, “ visited his old friend Fred Grant in London and marvelled at his excellent memory.” He reminisced about the times they had spent together at his uncle Philip Butler’s residence at Yattalunga and how at one time while sitting around the card table with his aunt, uncle and Fred Grant, Grant had remarked to Richard “I wish you would tie your legs in a knot, Dick; they are in my way”.  Richard Butler had   thoughtlessly replied “you will have some difficulty in tying yours,” at which he was severely reproved by his uncle for not showing more respect for age – a difference of 20 years.