The four Frasers profiled in Jacobites of
Aberdeenshire and Banffshire in the Rising of 1715 by Alistair and
Henrietta Taylor (1934) are Charles, Lord Fraser of Muchalls, William
Fraser of Inverallochy, Captain Simon Fraser and the Hon. James Fraser of
Lonmay, as follows:
Fraser, Lord Charles, of Muchalls -
"Fourth and last Lord Fraser, only son of Andrew, 3rd
Lord Fraser, and his first wife, Katherine, daughter of the 7th
Lord Lovat, widow of Viscount Arbuthnot, and before that of Sir John
Sinclair of Dunbeath, Charles, Lord Fraser was born before September 1662,
and was served heir to his father, 2nd March 1683. In September
of the same year he married Mary or Marjorie (she is usually called
Margaret in Peerages) Erskine, daughter of James, 7th Earl of
Buchan, and widow of Simon Fraser of Inverallochy. Lord Fraser, after the
Revolution, adhered to the Stuart cause and excused himself from attending
Parliament in 1689. On the collapse of the Jacobite resistance he
surrendered to General Mackay at Ayr in 1690 and on 30th
December was allowed to go home, ‘being certainly informed that his only
child was a dying.’ In 1692 he again showed his Jacobite opinions, as he
went with the Laird of Inverallochy and a number of friends and tenants to
Fraserburgh Cross where they proclaimed James II as King of Great Britain.
They drank his health, forced others to do the same and fired guns and
pistols. For this escapade Lord Fraser was tried a year later and fined
£200, but there was great difficulty in collecting a jury to deal with the
case. He took the oaths to King William and his seat in Parliament, 2nd
July 1695. In 1697 he joined with Captain Simon Fraser [of Beaufort, later
the notorious Lord Lovat] in violently preventing the marriage of the
daughter of Hugh, Lord Lovat, with the Master of Saltoun. He was a
supporter of the Union and took part in the ’15, though he does not appear
to have been very active in the cause. He was in hiding at the collapse of
the Rising, but in February 1716, he surrendered, as is shown by a letter
from James Cockburn to Mr Pringle, now in the Record Office, of 22nd
February 1716: ‘My Lord Fraser has surrendered himself and desired a guard
might be sent to his house, he being so ill he cannot travel.’ That he
subsequently escaped is proved by the fact that he met his death by a fall
from a cliff at Pennan, near Banff, on 12th October 1716. It is
said that he was about to go on board a ship to go to France. James
Farquharson of Balmoral, who was with him at the time also fell over the
cliff but recovered. Muchalls is the old name for Castle Fraser,
Aberdeenshire."
[Ed: William Fraser, 11th [now 12th]
Lord Saltoun (1654-1715) had an unpleasant experience after traveling to
Castle Dounie to meet Lady Amelia Murray, daughter of John, 1st
Marquis of Atholl, and widow of Hugh Fraser, 9th Lord Lovat
(1666-1696). The purpose of the visit was to arrange with the dowager Lady
Lovat, a marriage contract between the Lovat heiress Amelia Fraser, then
about 9 years old, with his 12 year-old son and heir, Alexander Fraser,
Master of Saltoun. The deceased Hugh Lord Lovat’s uncle, Thomas Fraser of
Beaufort (1631-1699), strongly opposed the match and his 29 year-old son,
Captain Simon Fraser of Beaufort, succeeded in preventing the proposed
marriage by stringing Lord Saltoun from a tree and extracting from him a
promise not to pursue the match. Simon Fraser failed in his attempts to
marry the young Lovat heiress himself, eventually raping and forcibly
marrying her mother, the 31 year-old dowager Lady Lovat. For this lawless
behaviour and other offences, Simon and his accomplices were tried by the
Court of Justiciary on a charge of High Treason and other offences, and
condemned to death, but Simon escaped to France and went into exile.]
Fraser, William, of Inverallochy, step-son of the above
-
"The second son of Simon Fraser [3rd] of
Inverallochy and his wife, Lady Marjorie Erskine, daughter of the Earl of
Buchan, William [5th] succeeded his elder brother [Alexander 4th]
in Inverallochy in 1698. His mother was married, secondly, in 1683, to
Charles, 4th Lord Fraser. William Fraser of Inverallochy
succeeded to the family estates, and, living to a great age, was known as
‘Old Inverallochy’. His son, Charles, was killed at Culloden."
[Ed: William Fraser 5th laird of
Inverallochy was succeeded by his son Charles who lived to a great age (he
died in 1787) and was known as ‘Old Inverallochy’. Charles Fraser (Old
Inverallochy) had three sons, namely, Charles (1725-46), William (1730-92)
and Simon (1732-59); and two daughters, namely, Martha (1727-1803) and
Elyza (1734-1814). The eldest son was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Fraser,
ygr of Inverallochy, who, in the absence of Colonel Simon Fraser of Lovat,
led the Frasers of Lovat at Culloden and was killed, while lying wounded
on the battlefield, on the orders of General Hawley. The youngest son was
Captain Simon Fraser who died in October 1759 from wounds suffered at the
battle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759, while serving with
Fraser’s Highlanders in Canada during the Seven Years War (1757-63).
Charles Fraser of Inverallochy and his only surviving son William are the
first named in the Deed of Entail for disposition of the Lovat lands and
estates, drawn up, and registered at Edinburgh in 1774, by Major General
Simon Fraser of Lovat (1726-82), outside his own family. William died
unmarried in 1792, when Martha inherited Inverallochy and Elyza inherited
Castle Fraser, now owned and operated by The National Trust for Scotland.]
Inverallochy Castle, which is now only a ruin, is
located ½ mile south of Cairnbulg Castle, Fraserburgh, hereditary seat of
the Frasers of Philorth, Lords Saltoun. Although a Lowland family, the
Frasers of Philorth, Lords Saltoun, being the senior line, are Chiefs of
the name of Fraser. Lord Lovat is the chief of the very numerous Highland
clan Fraser of Lovat, based in Inverness-shire.
Fraser, Captain Simon -
"Described as ‘a cousin german’ to William Fraser of
Inverallochy, he was son of a younger brother of the Simon of Inverallochy
who married Lady Marjorie Erskine. He was generally called Captain Simon
Fraser. In the Stuart Papers there is a letter from Sens, on 7th
May 1716, to John Paterson, in which Fraser mentions that he had recently
arrived in France, and states that he was ‘a half-pay officer, who had
wished to serve under Mar, but was persuaded to do so under Lord Kenmure.’
He goes on to say that he was wounded in the thigh at Preston, ‘which sent
me to such a bed as I could get and by that means hindered me from being
discovered and consequently saved me from the deplorable fate of the other
worthy gentlemen who suffered at that time. They came afterwards to know
what I was and brought me to London with an intention to sacrifice me in
the presence of the troops of the Household, but, as they were meditating
my ruin, it pleased God to furnish me with an opportunity of making my
escape, which accordingly I did about 6 weeks ago and here I am, ready and
willing and longing for a fit occasion to show my zeal for his Majesty’s
service and in a particular manner entirely devoted to the Duke of Mar’s
interest. Though I left a small family behind me I shall be very easy,
providing I may be useful.’ "
[Ed: Simon Fraser, 6th Lord Lovat
(1570-1633), by his second wife, had two sons, namely, Sir Simon Fraser 1st
laird of Inverallochy and Sir James Fraser 1st laird of Brae.
Sir James had two sons, namely, the Rev. James Fraser 2nd of
Brae who became one of the leading Covenanting ministers of his time, and
David Fraser of Maine, who had a son Simon who died in 1734.]
In the Chiefs of Grant (1883), Sir William
Fraser (1816-98) refers to a letter to Brigadier-General Grant, dated 8th
January 1715, wherein Lovat speaks of him as "Simon, David of Brea’s son,"
and as that "villain Simon who always sold his blood and honour for some
pennies of money from Atholl and Prestonhall," and says that "that villain
is unnatural and ungrateful to a strange pitch, for, after all his knavery
in Scotland, I kept him from starving in France after his being made
prisoner at Almanza."
In the History of the Frasers of Lovat (1896),
Alexander Mackenzie (1838-98) quotes from Memoirs of his Life,
wherein the notorious Simon Fraser of Beaufort (later Lord Lovat) writes
in 1699 that as soon as King William had signed "this unlimited pardon" to
himself, "Lord Lovat dispatched his cousin, Simon, son of David Fraser of
Brea, express, in order to cause the Great Seal of Scotland to be affixed
to it. But whether this cousin, who is an unnatural traitor, and a rascal
worthy of the gallows, had at that time sold his chief for the money of
Lord Atholl, as he repeatedly did afterwards, or the timidity of Lord
Seafield induced him to stop this pardon in its passage through the
remaining forms, this much is certain, that the pardon executed in Holland
was suppressed." Alexander Mackenzie makes the point that the descendants
of Sir James Fraser of Brae are not mentioned in the entails of General
Simon Fraser (1726-82) and Archibald Fraser of Lovat (1736-1815), which in
all probability would not have been the case had any male representative
of that branch been known to exist; for they would naturally be called in
before the more remote branches of Strichen, Struy, Belladrum and
Farraline … but one cannot forget the fact that Ardachy was passed over in
these entails, though coming immediately after Strichen in propinquity.]
Fraser, The Hon. James, of Lonmay -
"Third son of William, 11th Lord Saltoun,
and his wife, Margaret, daughter of James Sharpe, Archbishop of St
Andrews, James Fraser was ‘out’ in the ’15, his father having just died in
March of that year. His eldest sister, Helen, had married in 1709, Sir
James Gordon of Park, who was also ‘out’ in the Rising. His brother,
Alexander, 12th Lord Saltoun, took no active part in the ’15.
The date of James Fraser’s birth is not recorded, but he married, in 1726,
Lady Eleanor Lindsay, daughter of Colin, 3rd Earl of Balcarres,
and had one son, William, a cornet in Lord Stair’s Regiment of Dragoons,
who died abroad. James Fraser bought Lonmay from the Hon. Patrick Ogilvie,
brother to Lord Findlater, in 1718. According to the Statistical Account
of the Parish of Lonmay, an Episcopal Meeting House was built there in
1727, ‘one of the principal promoters being Mr Fraser of Lonmay who was
engaged in the late rebellion and still continues in that same strain
against the Government.’ The Meeting House was burnt down by the
Hanoverians after Culloden. James Fraser died on 10th August
1729, his widow survived him for six years."
[Ed: This seems like a plausible account.
However, there is no record of any cornet or commissioned officer named
William Fraser in Lord Stair’s regiment.]
William Fraser 11th [now 12th]
Lord Saltoun (1654-1715) had a large family by his wife, Margaret
(1664-1734), younger daughter of Dr James Sharp, Archbishop of St Andrews
(1618-79) who was dragged from his coach at Magus Muir in North-east Fife
and murdered by a band of Covenanters in the presence of his eldest
daughter, Isabella. Lord Saltoun’s son, James Fraser of Lonmay, was
married in March 1726 to Lady Eleanor Lindsay (c1693-1735), d/o Colin
Lindsay, 3rd Earl of Balcarres (1652-1723), by his 4th
wife, Margaret Campbell, d/o James, Earl of Loudoun. Lady Eleanor died in
1735 and her mother, Margaret, Countess of Balcarres, died in 1747.
William Fraser was two years old when his father died and eight when his
mother died. What happened to him then?
These were turbulent times and loyalties shifted
rapidly in the years between the Jacobite Uprisings of 1715 and 1745 which
divided families and resulted in one of the most tragic periods in
Scottish history. Researching the story of what happened to William Fraser
has been a fascinating journey.