Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Grant, Roger
GRANT, ROGER (d. 1724), quack oculist, having lost an eye as a soldier in the German emperor's service, set up as an oculist in Queen Anne's reign in Mouse Alley, Wapping, and contrived to get appointed oculist to Anne and to George I, and to acquire considerable wealth. He is satirically referred to us 'putting out eyes with great success' in No. 444 of the 'Spectator' (30 July 1712). A sheet describing his professed cures is in the British Museum Library, and also an 'Account of a Miraculous Cure of a Young Man in Newington,' London, 1709, evidently written to discredit his pretensions. The latter pamphlet states that Grant was a baptist preacher, had been a cobbler, and was illiterate. He died 7 April 1724 (Hist. Reg. for 1724, p. 20).
[Wadd's Nugæ Chirurgicæ, p. 72; works referred to above.]