Robert Grant
Union Fire-Club
(????-????)
Mr. Grant joined the Union Fire-Club on September 3, 1754. He was a surgeon and merchant. he is listed on the 1759 reprint of the "Rule and Orders" of the Union Fire-Club.
From Surgeons, Smallpox and the Poor: A History of Medicine and Social Conditions in Nova Scotia 1749-1799:
The earliest advertisements by medical practitioners in Halifax appeared in the Halifax Gazette of 21 July 1753. The second appeared in the Gazette in October and was inserted by Robert Grant, who, among other commodities, was offering medicine for sale.
During the first nine years after the founding of Halifax, Nova Scotia was governed by governor and Council. After 1758, the elected House of Assembly joined the Governor and the appointed Council in enacting the province's laws. Only one surgeon, Dr. Robert Grant, was appointed to the Council during the period 1749-1774. He had come to Halifax in 1749 as a surgeon's mate on the Charlton and, in June 1756, was sworn in as a member of Council. He continued to attend Council meetings until June 1758, after which he moved his business of victualling HM Ships of War to Louisbourg and later to Quebec. On 16 August 1759, Grant was replaced on Council because of inattendance. Robert Grant was one of a group of councillors who wrote to the Lords of Trade, on March 1757, complaining of Governor Lawrence's delay in calling an Assembly.
Robert Grant sent a letter to the board of the Hospital for Sick and Hurt Seamen (Granville Street) on December 1759 indicates that Major Lockman, surgeon and agent for the sick, had requested that Grant take care of the sick sent ashore on 29 October 1750. Grant explained that Lockman had been appointed surgeon and agent for the hospital by Captain Rous, but now found that his private business did not permit him to assume these responsabilities. In a second letter, dated 4 October 1752, Robert Grant stated that he had been appointed to act as surgeon and agent for sick seamen at Halifax by Captain Pye, chief commander of the squadron at Halifax, as "Mr. Lockman had declined to act since the pay was too low". Robert Grant held the appointment on 16 April 1753 and was still in the position in October of 1755, when he reported that he had 177 sick sailors from Admiral Edward Boscawen's Fleet and seventy-nine French prisoners under treament in sick quarters in Halifax.
Robert Grant operated a store in Granville Street where he sold Groceries medicines and dry goods. It was hard to make a living as a doctor or surgeon because of patients failing to pay for medical bills.