James was born in 1857 - his death cert says "Roscommon, Co Armagh", which cannot be correct as Roscommon is the county town of Co Roscommon. I had no idea where the children of Stephen and Mary Ann Grant were born after they left Towra, so Co Roscommon is probably correct.
For years the only thing that I knew about him was that James was believed to have emigrated to Australia and to have had 4 children in Sydney, Australia according to family lore. The children included a son Charles who worked in a bank and also Charles was believed to have visited Woodlawn in 1909.
Then a lucky break on an ancestry.com forum gave me his death in Sydney in 1948 aged 91. Merv Merritt had a session in the Brisbane Library and found the death notice plus more information on James family. This led to more about James' family. I also got this information from Donna Telfer
James Grant was born in 1857 in Ireland, spent a brief period in the Dublin Metropolitan Police (like his brother Thomas), married Sarah Watson in Feb 1884 in Dublin, then emigrated to Brisbane, Australia in 1884. His brother Richard (b1843) went to Australia just after the 1881 UK census, arriving in Brisbane in September 1881. James sailed on the Duke of Devonshire in 1884 with his new wife Sarah.
James joined the Dublin Metropolitan Police and had a registration number 8874
(his brother Thomas was number7600). The enlistment record states he was born
in "New Inn, Co Roscommon". Certainly New Inn in where the family
lived at Woodlawn, but this is Co Galway. I suspect that James was born in Ballinasloe,
then in Roscommon, but it is difficult to be sure.
He married married to Sarah Watson (born Kildare, Ireland in about 1860). They married in St Stephen's Parish Church Dublin on 19 Feb 1884, he is a constable in Dublin Mentropolitan Police, stationed at Kingstown, son of Stephen Grant, farmer. She is living at12 Upper Mount St, Dublin, daughter of John Watson, farmer. The marriage was witnessed by David Campbell and Martha Watson (whom I would suspect is her sister)
His brother Thomas Grant had married a Marie Watson, also born in Kildare. I know that the two Watson girls were not sisters, but I suspect they were cousins. The marriage certificate gives Sarah's father as John Watson
They had 4 children, 2 of whom survived childhood. Charles Stephen Grant and Violet Watson Grant. James worked as a bacon curer/trimmer or butcher, and appears to have lived round Brisbane until about 1922 when he and his wife moved to Sydney to live with their newly married daughter. His wife Sarah died in 1933 (their son Charles died in 1939 in Qld) and James himself died in Sydney in 1948. His other daughter Violet (who married Francis Clift) eventually died in Sydney in 1960.
James does not appear in any of the English censuses, so must have gone directly from Ireland to Australia. James and his wife Sarah sailed as "bounty" passengers on the Duke of Devonshire which left Plymouth on May 20 1884 and arrived at Townsville on July 12 1884 and thence onto Rockhampton and then Brisbane. They would have been in Brisbane in time for Elizabeth Grant to be born Sept 16 1884.
James married Sarah Ann Watson, presumably in 1883 or 1884 (their first child in Australia was born in September 1884, and Sarah's death certificate implies she was married in 1883 in Kildare, Ireland).
James occupation was given as Bacon-Curer in 1903, Butcher in 1913, and Bacon-Curer in 1922.
1903 living at Zillmere, Brisbane
1913 electoral roll
1916 Charles Stephen Grant marries Gladys Buckle on 6 Jun ref 16/B018760.
1917 born their child Mollie Marie Lenore. I have had contact with her grand-daughter, Leisa Maree Lowry, lives in Gladstone Australia and is married to Hector Ross Lowry who was born in Londonderry
1919 Electoral Roll for the district of Lilley, Nundah, Qld gives the following adults. Lilley is now a suburb of Brisbane, about 5 miles north of the city centre, and about 60 miles from where his brother Richard had settled at Toowoomba
1919 Violet Watson Grant marries Francis Z Clift in Queensland in Brisbane area on 30 Dec 1920/B24266. The family must have moved to Sydney soon after the wedding, as their first child was born in Sydney.
1922 living at Inglebrae, Ross Street, Northgate,
1930 Electoral Roll for Wentworth , Clovelly, NSW
1933 death of his wife Sarah A Grant (nee Watson) aged 73 years ref 7134/1933 in Clovelly, Randwick , Sydney
1936 Electoral Roll for Clovelly, NSW
1948 James dies at 25 Park St, Clovelly, given as his daughters's residence. His death notice 13 Aug 1948. Death aged 91 at Clovelly, Sydney, Morning Herald 16 AUG 1948
1960 It would appear that with Violet's death, the last of the Grants from this branch of the family had gone. There are still living descendents of Violet which can be followed on her page.