George Macpherson-Grant was born on 25 February 1781, the first son of Capt. John Macpherson and his wife Isabella, daughter of Thomas Wilson of Witton Gilbert, co. Durham. Educated 'expensively' at Edinburgh, he was said to be training as a writer and served with the Invereshie and Strathspey Volunteers. He married in 1803 Mary (d.1854), eldest daughter of Thomas Carnegy of Craigo, co. Forfar; they had three sons and three daughters.
In 1806 George Macpherson inherited Ballindalloch, Banff, the estate of his maternal great-uncle, General James Grant of Ballindalloch, whereupon he assumed the additional name of Grant, and in 1812 he further succeeded his paternal uncle William Macpherson to the estate of Invereshie, Inverness. As M.P. for Sutherland from 1809 to 1812 and again from 1816 to 1826, he voted against parliamentary reforms and in favour of Catholic relief and an inquiry into criminal law reform, and was appointed to the Poor Law Committee in 1819. He was created a Baronet in 1838 and died on 24 November, 1846.