Trant, Sir Nicholas (1769–1839), officer in the French, British, and Portuguese armies, was born 12 November 1769, third son of Thomas Trant of Ballintlea, Co. Kerry, and his wife (and cousin), a daughter of James Trant of Castleisland, Co. Kerry. Nicholas's grandfather was Dominick Trant of Ballintlea; the family was of Danish origin. He passed his youth in Co. Kerry before travelling to France, where he was educated in a French military academy. In the État Militaire de France of 1786 he is mentioned as a lieutenant in the regiment of Comte Walsh de Serrant, then stationed at Oleron. After the French revolution he fled from France and entered the British army, being commissioned as a lieutenant of the 84th Foot in May 1794. He served at Flushing and at the Cape of Good Hope and returned to England (1795), where he joined the 2nd Regiment of the English–Irish Brigade, his commission as a captain of that brigade being backdated to 1 October 1794.
Sent to Portugal, he took part in the capture of Minorca (November 1798). Promoted to major (January 1799), he served in the Egyptian expedition and was present at the battle of Alexandria. After the peace of Amiens (1802) the English–Irish brigade was disbanded and he sold his commission. When war was declared again in 1803, he was living with his family in Boulogne and only managed to return to England with some difficulty. He entered the army and, effectively starting his career again from scratch, was commissioned into the Royal Staff Corps as an ensign (25 December 1803). Promoted to lieutenant (1805), he went to Portugal as a military agent (1808), with the local rank of lieutenant-colonel in the Portuguese army. He commanded a corps of Portuguese troops, campaigned with Sir Arthur Wellesley (qv) (later 1st duke of Wellington), and was present at the battles of Roliça (17 August 1808) and Vimeiro (21 August). In 1809 he raised a corps of volunteers from the students at Coimbra University and was appointed governor of Oporto after its recapture from the French (May 1809).
Promoted to captain in the Royal Staff Corps in June 1809, he also held the rank of brigadier-general in the Portuguese army. In October 1810 he carried out his most impressive coup, capturing Coimbra along with about 5,000 French prisoners. Created a knight commander of the Portuguese order of the Tower and Sword (October 1811), in April 1812 he carried out a successful ruse de guerre, convincing two French divisions that were about to storm Almeida that there was a superior British force nearby. He ordered a large number of camp fires to be lit and used his troops in such a way as to convince the French that they were outnumbered, and they retired from the field. In 1813 objections were raised by the Horse Guards to his drawing British army pay while also being paid by the Portuguese government. Transferring to the Portuguese service list (October 1814), he was promoted to brevet major (June 1815). In December 1816 he was placed on half-pay and was later promoted to major-general on the half-pay list (1818). He resigned from the army altogether in 1825 and suffered serious financial difficulties in later life. His health also suffered as he was often in severe pain from an unextracted bullet in his side, the result of an old wound. He died 16 October 1839 at Great Baddow, Essex.
He married (1799) Sarah Georgina Horsington (d. 1806). They had one son and two daughters; one of the daughters died in infancy. His son, Thomas Abercrombie Trant (1804–32) who had travelled with his father in Portugal and Spain while still a boy, was a captain in the 28th Foot and author of Two years in Ava (1827) and Narrative of a journey through Greece (1830). His daughter, Clarissa Trant, married the Rev. John Bramston, vicar of Great Baddow, where Trant spent his final years.