There he remained until 1737, when, after the murder of the Scottish Catholic Mission's Roman agent Stuart, he was appointed to fill that office.
[1] He became valued as a well-connected contact by British travellers visiting Rome, and rendered them many services.
Although widely regarded as a Jacobite, he secured the patronage as cicerone of influential visitors, including William Beckford, Lord Shelburne, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Sir James Grant and Lord Hope.
For a long period hardly any British subject of distinction visited Rome without being provided with letters of introduction to the Abbé Grant.
Clement XIV was very fond of him, and intended to create him a Cardinal; but died before taking steps.