John Grant, Chief Justice of Jamaica

John Grant by Raeburn.

The invitation by the Tumbling Lassie Committee to speak on 9th May (click here for more information about the event) prompted me to delve deeper into the Chief Justice’s career in the law.

It is still unclear where he trained in English Law, which was a prerequisite for lawyers in Jamaica. It had been thought that he studied at Glasgow University and then in England but there is no record of a John Grant having been admitted at the Inns of Court during the relevant period.

From early correspondence it is very possible that he might have studied or trained in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where English Law was also followed, as there is a clear reference to him having been a “prop” to the then Chief Justice.

A further, more detailed study of a printed copy of John Grant’s Notes of Decisions in Jamaica throws a different light on the question. The introduction implies that he started to study law “after he had reached middle life…on being called to act as one of the ordinary judges of that Court of which he afterwards rose to be Chief”.