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:

"Fourth and last Lord Fraser, only son of Andrew, 3^rd Lord Fraser, and his first wife, Katherine, daughter of the 7^th 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, 2^nd March 1683. In September of the same year he married Mary or Marjorie (she is usually called Margaret in Peerages) Erskine, daughter of James, 7^th 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 30^th 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, 2^nd 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 22^nd 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 12^th 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, 11^th [now 12^th] Lord Saltoun (1654-1715) had an unpleasant experience after traveling to Castle Dounie to meet Lady Amelia Murray, daughter of John, 1^st Marquis of Atholl, and widow of Hugh Fraser, 9^th 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.]

"The second son of Simon Fraser [3^rd] of Inverallochy and his wife, Lady Marjorie Erskine, daughter of the Earl of Buchan, William [5^th] succeeded his elder brother [Alexander 4^th] in Inverallochy in 1698. His mother was married, secondly, in 1683, to Charles, 4^th 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 5^th 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.

"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 7^th 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, 6^th Lord Lovat (1570-1633), by his second wife, had two sons, namely, Sir Simon Fraser 1^st laird of Inverallochy and Sir James Fraser 1^st laird of Brae. Sir James had two sons, namely, the Rev. James Fraser 2^nd 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 8^th 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.]

"Third son of William, 11^th 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, 12^th 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, 3^rd 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 10^th 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 11^th [now 12^th] 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, 3^rd Earl of Balcarres (1652-1723), by his 4^th 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?