 Morant's father served in the Grenadier Guards, and was a justice of the peace.The senior line of the Morant family (the elder George Morant being grandson of the former head of the family) lived at Brockenhurst, Hampshire, and claimed Norman descent tracing back from William de Moraunt, of Moraunt's Court, in Kent, who was high sheriff of that county in 1337 and 1338, during the reign of King Edward III.They were later resident in Jamaica, and owned plantations there.