 Mary Grant was the sister of the English consul in Bucharest, Effingham Grant, who was married to a Romanian, Zoia Racoviță, the daughter of Alexandru Racoviță.During the revolution of 1848 he was one of the leaders of the radical current of the revolutionaries; he was secretary of the provisional Government, prefect of police (agă) in Bucharest and editor of the newspaper "Pruncul român" ("Romanian baby").After the defeat of the revolutionary government, he took part in the first batch of exiles, ascended by Turks with two rafts up the Danube, to the border with Austria.