FRASER,
sometimes written Frazer, a surname derived from the French word
fraizes or fraises, strawberries, seven strawberry flowers
forming part of the armorial bearings of families of this name. The
first of this surname in Scotland was of Norman origin, and came over
with William the Conqueror. The Chronicles of the Fraser family pretend
that their ancestor was one Pierre Fraser, seigneur de Troile, who in
the reign of Charlemagne, came to Scotland with the ambassadors from
France to form a league with King Achaius, and that his son, in the year
814, became thane of the Isle of Man, but all this is mere fable. Their
account of the creation of their arms is equally an invention. According
to their statement, in the reign of Charles the Simple of France, Julius
de Berry, a nobleman of Bourbon, entertaining that monarch with a dish
of fine strawberries, was, for the same, knighted, the strawberry
flowers, fraises, given him for his arms, and his name changed
from de Berry to Fraiseur or Frizelle. They claim affinity with the
family of the duke de la Frezeliere, in France. The first of the name in
Scotland is understood to have settled there in the reign of Malcolm
Canmore, when surnames first began to be used, and although the Frasers
afterwards became a powerful and numerous clan in Inverness-shire, their
earliest settlements were in East Lothian and Tweeddale.
In the reign
of David the First, Sir Simon Fraser possessed half of the territory of
Keith in East Lothian (from him called Keith Simon), and to the monks of
Kelso he granted the church of Keith. He had a daughter, Eda, married to
Hugh Lorens, and their daughter, also named Eda, became the wife of
Hervey, the king’s marechal, proprietor of the other half of the
territory of Keith, called after him Keith Hervey. He was the ancestor
of the north country Keiths, earls Marischal. A member of the same
family, Gilbert de Fraser, obtained the lands of North Hailes, also in
East Lothian, as a vassal of the earl of March and Dunbar, and is said
to be a witness to a charter of Cospatrick to the monks of Coldstream,
during the reign of Alexander the First. He also possessed large estates
in Tweeddale. His eldest son, Oliver de Fraser, who flourished between
1175 and 1199, built Oliver castle, in the shire of Peebles, celebrated
in history as the stronghold of the heroic companion of Wallace, Sir
Simon Fraser, of whom a memoir is given afterwards. Dying without issue,
Oliver was succeeded by his nephew, Adam de Fraser, He was the son of
Udard Fraser, Gilbert’s second son, who had settled in Peebles-shire.
His son, Laurence Fraser, is witness to a charter of the ward of East
Nisbet, by Patrick earl of Dunbar to the monks of Coldingham, in 1261.
Laurentius Fraser, dominus de Drumelzier, possessed the lands of
Mackerston in Roxburghshire. His son, also named Laurence, lived during
the wars of succession, and with his eldest daughter the estate of
Drumelzier went by marriage into the family of Tweedie. The second
daughter, maarying Dougal Macdougall, carried to him the estate of
Mackerston, in the reign of David the Second, and it now belongs to a
descendant of his on the female side.
In the reign
of Alexander the Second the chief of the family was Bernard de Fraser,
supposed to have been the grandson of the above-named Gilbert, by a
third son, whose name is conjectured to have been Simon. [Anderson’s
Hist. Acc. of the frasers, p. 8.] Bernard was a frequent witness to
the charters of Alexander the Second, and in 1234 was made sheriff of
Stirling, an h onour long hereditary in his family. By his talents he
raised himself from being the vassal of a subject to be a tenant in
chief to the king. He acquired the ancient territory of Oliver castle,
which he transmitted to his posterity. He was one of the magnates of
Scotland who swore to the performance of the treaty of peace agreed upon
between Alexander the Second and Henry the Third of England at York in
1237, and is said to have married Mary Ogilvie, daughter of Gilchrist,
thane of Angus, whose mother, Marjory, was the sister of Kings Malcolm
the Fourth and William the Lion, and the daughter of Prince Henry. He
was succeeded by his son Sir Gilbert Fraser, who was sheriff or
vicecomes of Traquair during the reigns of Alexander the Second and his
successor. He had three sons; Simon, his heir; Andrew, sheriff of
Stirling in 1291 and 1293; and William, chancellor of Scotland from 1274
to 1280, and bishop of St. Andrews from 1279 to his death in 1297. He
was first dean of Glasgow, and was consecrated bishop at Rome by Pope
Nicholas the Third in 1280. In 1283, according to Wintoun, (Chronicles,
p. 528,) he obtained for the bishops of St. Andrews, from Alexander
the Third, the privilege of coining money. After the death of that
monarch, he was one of the lords of the regency chosen by the states of
Scotland, during the minority of the infant queen Margaret, styled “the
maiden of Norway;” and as such was appointed to treat with the Norwegian
plenipotentiaries on her affairs. On the death of that princess in 1291,
he rendered a compelled homage to Edward the First of England, by whom
he was created one of the guardians of Scotland. He was one of the early
assertors of the independence of his country, and within a month after
the accession of John Baliol to the throne, bishop Fraser joined with
several others in a complaint against the English monarch for
withdrawing causes out of Scotland contrary to his engagement and
promises, and in prejudice of Baliol’s sovereign rights and authority.
It was at the command of this patriotic bishop that Sir William Wallace,
when guardian of the kingdom, put all the English who held them, out of
their church benefices in Scotland. In 1295 he was one of the
commissioners who concluded the fatal treaty with King Philip of France,
by which the latter agreed to give Baliol his niece, the eldest daughter
of Charles count of Anjou, in marriage to his son and heir, a treaty,
styled by Lord Hailes, “the groundwork of many more equally honourable
and ruinous to Scotland.” [Annals, vol. i. p. 234.] Bishop Fraser
died at Arteville in France, 13th September 1297. His body
was buried in the church of the friars predicants in Paris, but his
heart, enclosed in a rich box, was brought to Scotland by his successor,
Bishop Lamberton, and entombed in the wall of the cathedral of St.
Andrews. Following is a representation of his seal from Anderson’s
Diplomata Scotiae, plate 100, the smallest one there.
[Bishop Fraser’s seal]
Sir Simon Fraser, the eldest son, was a man of great influence and
power. He possessed the lands of Oliver castle, Niedpath castle, and
other lands in Tweeddale; and accompanied King Alexander the Second in a
pilgrimage to Iona, a short time previous to the death of that monarch.
He was knighted by Alexander the Third, who, in the beginning of his
reign, conferred on him the office of high sheriff of Tweeddale, which
he held from 1263 to 1266. He was one of the magnates Scotiae
who, in 1285, engaged to support Margaret of Norway as the successor of
Alexander the Third. He sat in the famous parliament of Brigham in 1290,
when the marriage of Margaret with Prince Edward of England was
proposed. He supported the title of Baliol to the throne till basely
surrendered by himself, and in conjunction with his brothers, William
and Sir Andrew, and his cousin Sir Richard Fraser, was appointed an
arbiter by Baliol for determining the right of the several competitors
to the crown, 5th June 1291. He swore fealty to Edward the
First at Norham on the 12th of the same month, and again on
23d July at the monastery of Lindores. He died the same year. He had an
only son, Sir Simon Fraser, the renowned patriot, of whom a memoir is
given below. With him may be said (in 1306) to have expired the direct
male line of the south country Frasers, after having been the most
considerable family in Peebles-shire during the Scoto-Saxon period of
our history, from 1097 to 1306. The ruins of Oliver castle, and the
castles of Fruid, Drummelzier, and Niedpath, (views of the last two may
be seen in Grose’s Antiquities,) attest their ancient greatness. Sir
Simon had two daughters, who divided his extensive possessions between
them. The elder, Mary, married Sir Gilbert Hay of Locherworth, ancestor
of the noble family of Tweeddale, on whom devolved, in her right, the
office of sheriff of Peebles. The younger became the wife of Sir Patrick
Fleming, progenitor of the earls of Wigton. Each of these families
quartered the arms of Fraser with their paternal arms.
The male representation of the principal family of Fraser devolved, on
the death of the great Sir Simon, on the next collateral heir, his
uncle, Sir Andrew, second son of Sir Gilbert Fraser, above mentioned. In
June 1291 he swore a forced allegiance to King Edward the First at
Dunfermline, and he was present when Baliol did homage to Edward, 26th
December 1292. He possessed the lands of Touch in Stirlingshire, which
it is probable were conferred on him when he became sheriff of that
county. He had also received from King Edward the First the manor of
Struthers and other lands in Fife. He and his son are frequently
mentioned in the annals of the period for their valorous exploits in
defence of their country against the English usurper. He is supposed to
have died about 1308, surviving his renowned nephew, Sir Simon, only two
years. He was, says the historian of the family, “the first of the name
of Fraser who established an interest for himself and his descendants in
the northern parts of Scotland, and more especially in Inverness-shire,
where they have ever since figured with such renown and distinction.” [Anderson’s
Hist. Acc. p. 35.] He married a wealthy heiress in the county of
Caithness, then and for many centuries thereafter comprehended within
the sheriffdom of Inverness, and in right of his wife he acquired a very
large estate in the north of Scotland. He had four sons, namely, Simon,
the immediate male ancestor of the lords Lovat (see LOVAT, Lord), and
whose descendants and dependents (the clan Fraser), after the manner of
the Celts, took the name of MacShimi, or sons of Simon; Sir Alexander,
who obtained the estate of Touch, as the appanage of a younger son, of
whom afterwards; and Andrew, and James, slain with their brother, Simon,
at the disastrous battle of Halidonhill, 22d July 1338.
The second son, Sir Alexander, swore fealty to Edward the First at
Berwick, 28th August, 1296. Among sixteen persons of the name
of Fraser, Frizel, or Fresle, whose names occur in the Ragman Roll as
having sworn fealty to King Edward, was Sir Richard Freser, styled del
Conte de Dumfries, who was probably a cousin of the great Sir Simon
Fraser. Sir Alexander joined King Robert at his coronation in March
1306, and was taken prisoner by the English at the battle of Methven, 19th
June following. He soon, however, recovered his liberty, and was with
Bruce in most of his battles, and particularly at Bannockburn. From that
monarch he received charters of various lands in the shires of
Kincardine, Stirling, and Aberdeen, and was sheriff of Kincardine. His
signature appears at the famous letter sent to the Pope in 1320,
asserting the independence of Scotland. Alexander Frisel was one of the
guarantees of a truce with the English 1st June 1323. He
married, about 1316, Lady Mary Bruce, a sister of King Robert, and widow
of Sir Niel Campbell of Lochow, and held the appointment of great
chamberlain of Scotland from 1325 to the death of his royal
brother-in-law in 1329. He fell at the battle of Duplin, 12th
August 1332. His line terminated, before 1355, in a female descendant,
Margaret, who inherited all his estates, and carried them into other
families. She married Sir William Keith, great marischal of Scotland;
and their son, John Keith, left by his wife, a daughter of King Robert
the Second, one son, Robert, whose daughter and heiress, Jean, married
Alexander, first earl of Huntly, on which account (as the dukes of
Gordon, before that title was extinct, did) the marquises of Huntly,
quarter the Fraser arms with their own.
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The ancient family of the Frasers of Philorth, in Aberdeenshire, who
have enjoyed since 1669 the title of Lord Saltoun, is immediately
descended from William, son of an Alexander Fraser, who flourished
during the early part of the fourteenth century, and inherited from his
father the estates of Cowie and Durris in Kincardineshire. This William
is stated erroneously in Douglas’ Peerage, (Wood’s edition, vol. ii. p.
473,) to have been a son of Sir Alexander, the chamberlain, above
mentioned. On the 7th July 1296, among other barons of that
part of the country, he swore fealty to Edward the First, at Fernel, now
Farnel, in Forfarshire, being described as “the son of the late
Alexander Fraser.” His father, therefore, must have been dead long
before Sir Alexander, the chamberlain, commenced his career. [Anderson’s
Hist. Acc. of the Frasers, p. 38, note.] From the loss of documents,
the precise relationship between him and the original Frasers of
Tweeddale cannot now be ascertained. William Fraser was one of the party
who, under the knight of Liddesdale, took by stratagem the castle of
Edinburgh, 17th April 1341. He was killed at the battle of
Durham, 17th October 1346.
His son, Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie, had a safe-conduct, 13th
October 1366, to go to England, with eight in his company, to study at
the university of Oxford. From David the Second he had a grant of the
office of sheriff of Aberdeen. He signalized himself at the battle of
Otterbourne in 1388, and died not long after 1408. His wife was Lady
Janet Ross, second daughter and coheiress of William, earl of Ross, and
from her sister, Euphemia, countess of Ross, and her husband, Sir Walter
de Lesley, he had charters of various lands in the earldom of Ross, the
whole being called the barony of Philorth, which thenceforth became the
chief designation of the family. By Lady Janet he had a son, Sir
William, who succeeded him. By a second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir
David de Hamilton of Cadzow, he had another son, Alexander, ancestor of
Sir Peter Fraser of Durris, whose daughter and heiress, Carey, was the
first wife of Charles Mordaunt, the celebrated earl of Peterborough and
Monmouth.
Sir William Fraser of Philorth, the elder son, succeeded his father
before 1413, when he sold the barony of Cowie to William Hay of Errol,
constable of Scotland. He died before 1441. By his wife, Lady Mary or
Eleanor Douglas, second daughter of the third earl of Douglas, he had a
son, Sir Alexander, and a daughter, Agnes, married, in 1423, to Sir
William Forbes of Kinnaldie, who obtained with her the barony of
Pitsligo.
The son, Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth, was knighted by King James
the Second, and accompanied his kinsman, the eighth earl of Douglas, to
the jubilee at Rome in 1450. He died 7th April 1482. He had
two sons; Alexander, and James. The latter obtaining from his father the
lands of Memsey, was ancestor of the Frasers of Memsey, an estate which,
after being in their possession for upwards of three centuries, was sold
by the late Col. Fraser to Lord Saltoun.
Alexander, the elder son, was succeeded by his son, Sir William Fraser
of Philorth, who died at Paris 5th September 1513. His son,
Alexander Fraser of Philorth, (died 12th April 1569,) had
four sons. Alexander, the eldest, died in 1564, before his father,
leaving (by his wife, Lady Beatrix Keith, fifth daughter of the third
earl Marischal) a son, named after him. William the second son, was
ancestor of the Frasers of Techmuiry. Thomas, the third son, had a
charter of the lands of Strathechin or Strichen, in Aberdeenshire, 11th
May 1558. He had two daughters, coheiresses. John, the fourth son, a
bachelor of divinity, was abbot of Noyon or Compeigne in France, and in
1596, was elected rector of the university of Paris, where he died 19th
April 1609. He was the author of several treatises in philosophy, and of
the following two works, namely, ‘An Offer to Subscribers to the
Ministers of Scotland’s Religion, if they can prove themselves to have
the True Kirk,’ Paris, 1604, 8vo; ‘Epistles to the Ministers of Great
Britain, against Subscription to their Confession of Faith,’ Paris,
1605, 8vo.
Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth, the son of the rector’s eldest
brother, succeeded his grandfather in 1569, and in the following year he
laid the foundation of the castle of Fraserburgh, which became the chief
residence of the family. He was a man of great public spirit, and to him
the town of Fraserburgh owes its municipal existence, as in October 1613
he got it erected into a burgh of regality, after an unavailing attempt
on the part of the magistrates and council of Aberdeen to prevent it.
The parish in which it is situated was originally called Philorth, but
the name was changed to Fraserburgh, in honour of Sir Alexander the
superior. The cross, the jail – now a ruinous edifice – and the
court-house, were erected by him. In 1592 he obtained a charter from the
Crown, containing powers to erect and endow a college and university at
Fraserburgh; and in 1597, the General Assembly recommended Mr. Charles
Ferme, then minister of Fraserburgh, to be principal, but nothing
further was ever done in the matter. An old quadrangular tower of three
stories, which formed part of a large building intended for the proposed
college, still stands at the west end of the town. Sir Alexander was in
great favour with King James the Sixth, to whom he advanced several
large sums of money, about the time of his marriage with the princess
Anne of Denmark. He was knighted in 1594, at the baptism of Prince
Henry, and died at Fraserburgh, 12th April 1623. A portrait
of him by Jameson is at Philorth house, near Fraserburgh, the seat of
his descendant Lord Saltoun. From another painting in the possession of
Mr. Urquhart of Craigston, an engraving was taken for Pinkerton’s
Scottish Gallery of Portraits, (vol. ii.) Of which the subjoined is a
woodcut:
[woodcut of Sir Alexander Fraser]
Sir
Alexander married Magdalen, only daughter of Sir Walter Ogilvy, of
Dunlugas, and had four sons and three daughters. Thomas, the youngest
son, was an antiquary, and wrote a history of the family.
The eldest son, also Sir Alexander, married Margaret, eldest daughter of
George, seventh Lord Abernethy of Saltoun, and, with two daughters, had
a son, Sir Alexander Fraser of Philorth, who, on the death of his
cousin, Alexander, ninth Lord Abernethy of Saltoun, in 1669, succeeded
to that peerage as heir of line, and became tenth Lord Saltoun. See
SALTOUN, Lord.
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FRASER, Baron,
a title (now dormant) in the peerage of Scotland, conferred by patent,
dated at Holyroodhouse, 29th June 1633, on Andrew Fraser, son
of Andrew Fraser of Kilmundy, Stanywood, and Muchells, Aberdeenshire,
descended from a branch of the house of Philorth, to him and his heirs
male for ever, bearing the name and arms of Fraser. He died 10th
December 1636.
His son, also named Andrew, second Lord Fraser, supported the cause of
the Covenant, and when Montrose proceeded to Aberdeen on the 30th
March 1639, with a commission from the Tables, (as the boards of
representatives, chosen respectively by the nobility, gentry, burghs,
and clergy, were called,) he was joined among others by Lord Fraser. On
the departure of Montrose’s army to the south, the Covenanters of the
north appointed a committee meeting to be held at Turriff on Wednesday,
24th April, consisting of the earls Marischal and Seaforth,
Lord Fraser, the master of Forbes, and some of their kindred and
friends. The meeting was afterwards adjourned till the 20th
May, which led to the historical incident styled “the Trot of Turray,”
the old name of Turriff, which is distinguished as the place where blood
was first shed in the civil wars. On the 11th of June
following, the royalist army under the Viscount Aboyne proceeded to the
house of Muchells, belonging to Lord Fraser, but hearing of a rising in
the south, Aboyne abandoned his intention of besieging it, and returned
to Aberdeen. Lord Fraser was one of the parliamentary commissioners
appointed 19th July 1644, for suppressing the insurrection in
the north, and for proceeding against rebels and malignants. In the
following year he was also one of the committee of Estates, and in 1649
he was a member of the committee for putting the kingdom in a posture of
defence. He died 24th May 1674. By his wife, a daughter of
Haldane of Gleneagles, he had a son, Andrew, third Lord Forbes, who
married Catherine, third daughter of Hugh eighth Lord Lovat, relict of
Sir John Sinclair of Dunbeath, and of Robert first viscount of Arbuthnot.
He died about the end of 1682.
His son, Charles, fourth Lord Fraser, was tried before the high court of
justiciary at Edinburgh, 29th March 1693, on a charge of high
treason, for proclaiming King James at the cross at Fraserburgh in June
or July 1692, drinking his health and that of his son, the pretended
prince of Wales, forcing others to do the same, and cursing King William
and his adherents, amid the firing of guns and pistols, and the
brandishing of swords. He was found guilty only of drinking the healths
of King James and his son. On the 16th May the court fined
him for the offence two hundred pounds. On his trial the lord advocate,
Sir James Stewart, protested for an assize of wilful error, if the jury
should acquit the prisoner, which, if acceded to, would have subjected
them to an indictment for giving an impartial and unbiased verdict in
his favour; but Lord Fraser, on his part, protested in the contrary,
because the committee of Estates, which had declared King James to have
‘forfaulted’ the crown and bestowed the same on William and Mary,
solemnly enacted and declared ‘that assizes of error are a grievance.’ [Arnot’s
Criminal Trials, pp. 77 and 78.] Four of the jury, evidently
apprehensive of being brought to an assize for the verdict delivered in,
desired it to be marked in the record that they found the proclamation
proved in terms of the indictment. These four were the master of Forbes,
Sir Alexander Gilmore of Craigmillar, Patrick Murray of Livingstone, and
James Ellis of Southside. Lord Bargeny was chancellor of the jury, and
it deserves to be noticed, as an indication of the feeling of the times,
that seven peers and eight gentlemen of distinction who were summoned as
jurors were fined a hundred merks each for not obeying the citation. The
middle verdict of ‘not proven,’ which is only known in the criminal
courts of Scotland, appears to have originated in the power then
possessed by the lord advocate, and too frequently exercised before the
Revolution, of subjecting an acquitting jury to an assize of wilful
error, to save them from the consequences of one of not guilty, and
prevent them from giving in one of guilty, contrary to the evidence and
their own consciences.
Lord Fraser took the oaths and his seat in parliament, 2d July 1695, and
in the parliament of 1706, he supported the union with England; but
engaged in the rebellion of 1715, and after its suppression, kept
himself concealed till his death, which happened 12th October
1720, owing to a fall from a precipice near Banff, by which his skull
was fractured, and he died immediately. He married Lady Marjory Erskine,
second daughter of the seventh earl of Buchan, relict of Sir Simon
Fraser of Inverallochy, but had no issue. The estate of Castle Fraser
was left by his lordship to her children by her first husband (see next
article). No heir male general has yet become a claimant for the title
of Lord Fraser.
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The family of Fraser of Castle Fraser, in Ross-shire, are descended, on
the female side, from the Hon. Sir Simon Fraser of Inverallochy, second
son of Simon, eighth Lord Lovat, but on the male side their name is
Mackenzie. Sir Simon’s grandson, Charles fraser, Esq. of Inverallochy,
heir of line to his grandmother, Lady Marjory Erskine, Lady Fraser, he
had no sons, and his eldest daughter, Martha, married Colin Mackenzie of
Kilcoy, by whom she had, with other issue, Charles, whose only son was
Sir Colin Mackenzie of Kilcoy, baronet, and Alexander Mackenzie, who
succeeded his mother in the estate of Inverallochy, and her youngest
sister, Elizabeth, in that of Castle Fraser, when he assumed the
additional surname of Fraser by royal license. He early entered the
army, and distinguished himself at the siege of Gibraltar. On the first
battalion of the 78th Highlanders, or Ross-shire Buffs,
being embodied in February 1793, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of
it, and in September 1794 joined an expedition under Major-general Lord
Mulgrave, the object of which was to occupy Zealand. On reaching
Flushing, the 78th, with other regiments, was ordered to
reinforce the duke of York’s army on the Waal. It afterwards became part
of the garrison of Nimeguen, to which place the enemy had laid siege.
After the evacuation of that place, the 78th entered the
third brigade of reserve, which was under the command of
Lieutenant-colonel Mackenzie Fraser. With his regiment he was engaged in
all the subsequent movements of the army, and in the retreat to Bremen.
He afterwards served in La Vendee, and in India, which he left in 1800.
When the second battalion of the regiment was raised in 1804, he was
made colonel of it. Early in 1807, when major-general, he commanded the
armament which was fitted out in Sicily for the purpose of occupying
Alexandria, Rosetta, and the adjoining coast of Egypt. The force under
his command on this occasion consisted of a detachment of artillery, the
20th light dragoons, the 31st, 35th, 78th,
and two other regiments. On the 16th of March he arrived with
a portion of his force off the Arab’s Tower to the west of Alexandria,
and having disembarked his troops, the town, on being summoned,
surrendered to him on the 20th of that month. He was
subsequently promoted to be lieutenant-general, and sat in several
parliaments as member for Ross-shire, his native county. He died in
1809, having married Helen, sister of Francis Lord Seaforth, and, with 2
daughters, had two sons; Charles, his heir, and Frederic Alexander
Mackenzie, lieutenant-colonel in the army, and assistant quarter-master
general to the forces in Canada, married 1st, second daughter
of Hume MacLeod of Harris, issue; 2dly, a daughter of Sir Charles Bagot,
Governor of Canada.
The elder son, Charles Fraser of Inverallochy and Castle Fraser, born
June 9, 1792, entered the army young, and served in the Peninsula in
1808-9, in the 52d foot, and in 1812, in the Coldstream guards, in which
regiment he was a captain. He was also colonel of the Ross-shire
militia. He was M.P. for Ross-shire from 1815 to 1819. He married Jane,
4th daughter of Sir John Hay, Bart. of Hayston, issue, 4 sons
and 5 daughters.
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The proper Highland clan Fraser, – in Gaelic Na Friosalaich, –
whose badge is the yew, and battle-cry was “Castle Downie,” (the
residence of their chief, from Duna, a camp or fortified
dwelling,) was that headed by the Lovat branch in Inverness-shire, as
above mentioned. Simon being the name of the first of them who settled
in the Highlands, and a common name for their chiefs, they adopted the
Gaelic designation of MacShimei, that is, the sons of Simon. They are
also sometimes called MacImmies. Unlike the Aberdeenshire or Saltoun
Frasers, the Lovat branch, the only branch of the Frasers that became
Celtic, founded a tribe or clan, and all the natives of the purely
Gaelic districts of the Aird and Stratherrick came to be called by their
name. The Simpsons, sons of Simon, are also considered to be descended
from them, and the Tweedies of Tweeddale are supposed, on very plausible
grounds, to have been originally Frasers. Logan’s conjecture that the
name of Fraser is a corruption of the Gaelic Friosal, from
frith, a forest, and siol, a race, the th being
silent, (that is, the race of the forest,) however pleasing to the clan
as proving them an indigenous Gaelic tribe, may only be mentioned here
as a mere fancy of his own.
The Frasers had their own share of clan feuds and battles, but the most
remarkable as well as the most sanguinary conflict in which they were
ever engaged was in 1544, with the MacDonalds of Clanranald, who had put
their chief Dougal MacRanald to death, and excluded his children from
the succession. Lord Lovat being the uncle of the young Ranald, Dougal’s
eldest son, called Ranald Galda, or the stranger, his cause was espoused
by the Frasers, four hundred of whom, the flower of the clan, with Lord
Lovat at their head, joined the earl of Huntly, the king’s lieutenant in
the north, when, with a numerous force, he marched to crush a threatened
insurrection of the Clanranald. After penetrating as far as Inverlochy
in Lochaber, and putting Ranald Galda in possession of Moydert, Huntly
retraced his steps, and on arriving at the mouth of Glenspean, Lovat
left him with his own vassals, accompanied by Ranald Galda and a few
followers of the latter. Near the head of the loch they were attacked by
a body of the Clanranald, amounting to nearly five hundred men. The
battle that ensued was one of the most bloody and destructive in clan
annals. It began with the discharge of arrows at a distance, but when
these were spent, both parties rushed to close combat, and attacked each
other furiously with their two-handed swords and Lochaber axes. So great
was the heat of the weather, it being the month of July, that the
combatants threw off their coats, and fought in their shirts; whence the
battle received the name of Blar-nanlein, ‘The field of shirts.’ All the
Frasers were killed, except one gentleman, James Fraser of Foyers (who
was severely wounded, and left for dead), and four common men, while it
is said, though this is considered incorrect, that only eight of the
Macdonalds survived the battle. The bodies of Lord Lovat, his son, the
Master, who had joined his father soon after the commencement of the
action, and Ranald Galda, were, a few days after, removed by a train of
mourning relatives, and interred at the priory of Beauly in the Aird. [Gregory’s
Highlands, p. 161.]
The clan Fraser formed part of the army of the earl of Seaforth when in
the beginning of 1645 that nobleman advanced to oppose the great
Montrose, who designed to seize Inverness, previous to the battle of
Inverlochy, in which the latter defeated the Campbells under the marquis
of Argyle in February of that year. After the arrival of King Charles
the Second in Scotland in 1650, the Frasers, to the amount of eight
hundred men, joined the troops raised to oppose Cromwell, their chief’s
son, the master of Lovat being appointed one of the colonels of foot for
Inverness and Ross. In the summer of 1652 they submitted to Monk, and as
Balfour says, “condescendit to pay cesse,” while other Highland clans
stood out, and laughed the English to scorn. [Balfour’s Annals,
vol. iv. p. 349.] In the rebellion of 1715, under their last famous
chief, Simon Lord Lovat (beheaded at Towerhill in 1747, of whom a memoir
is given below), they did good service to the government by taking
possession of Inverness, which was then in the hands of the Jacobites.
In 1719 also, at the affair of Glenshiel, in which the Spaniards were
defeated on the west coast of Inverness-shire, the Frasers fought
resolutely on the side of government, and took possession of the castle
of Brahan, the seat of the earl of Seaforth. On the breaking out of the
rebellion of 1745, they did not at first take any part in the struggle,
but after the battle of Prestonpans, on the 21st September,
Lord Lovat “mustered his clan,” and their first demonstration in favour
of the Pretender was to make a midnight attack on the castle of
Culloden, but found it garrisoned and prepared for their reception. On
the morning of the battle of Culloden six hundred of the Frasers, under
the command of the master of Lovat, a fine young man of nineteen,
effected a junction with the rebel army, and behaved during the action
with characteristic valour. When the Highlanders were forced to retreat,
the Frasers marched off with banners flying and pipes playing in the
face of the enemy. After the battle Charles Fraser, younger of
Inverallochy, the lieutenant-colonel of the Fraser regiment, was
savagely slain by order of the duke of Cumberland. When riding over the
field, the duke observed this brave youth lying wounded. Raising himself
upon his elbow, he looked at the duke, when the latter thus addressed
one of his officers, who afterwards became a more distinguished
commander than himself: “Wolfe, shoot me that Highland scoundrel who
thus dares to look on us with so insolent a stare.” Wolfe replied, that
his commission was at his royal highness’ disposal, but that he would
never consent to become an executioner. Other officers refusing to
commit this act of butchery, a private soldier, at the inhuman command
of the duke, shot the hapless youth before his eyes.
Lord Lovat’s eldest son, Simon Fraser, master of Lovat, afterwards
entered the service of government, and rose to the rank of
lieutenant-general in the army. He was at the university of St. Andrews,
pursuing his studies, when the rebellion broke out, and was sent for by
his father to head the clan in support of the Pretender, which he most
reluctantly did. It was stated by a witness on Lord lovat’s trial, that
while he was preparing one of his lordship’s deceptive letters to the
lord president Forbes, complaining of the obstinacy of his son in
rushing into the rebellion, the master of Lovat came in, and on reading
what he had written at the dictation of his father, said, “If this
letter goes, I will go and put the saddle on the right horse.” After the
battle of Culloden, he surrendered himself, and was confined in the
castle of Edinburgh till August 1747, when he proceeded to Glasgow,
there to remain during the king’s pleasure. Being proved to have been
forced into the rebellion, he in 1750 received a full and free pardon
from government. Soon after he refused an offer which was made to him of
a regiment in the French service; but he requested permission to be
employed in the British army, and in 1756, though not possessed of an
inch of land, his father’s estates being under forfeiture, in a few
weeks he raised among his own kinsmen and clan, a regiment of fourteen
hundred men, called the 78th or Fraser’s Highlanders, of
which he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, 5th January 1757.
On the regiment’s arrival at Halifax the following June, as the Highland
garb was judged unfit for the climate of North America, it was proposed
to change it for some warmer uniform, but the officers and soldiers
having set themselves against the plan, and being strongly supported in
their opposition by Colonel Fraser, it was abandoned. “Thanks to our
gracious chief,” said a veteran of the regiment, “we were allowed to
wear the garb of our fathers, and, in the course of six winters, showed
the doctors that they did not understand our constitution; for, in the
coldest winters, our men were more healthy than those regiments who wore
breeches and warm clothing.” He distinguished himself at Louisburg, and
in the attack on Quebec, where the regiment suffered much, and where he
himself was wounded. In the second battle on the Heights of Abraham,
under General Murray, Wolfe’s successor, Colonel Fraser commanded the
left wing of the British army, and was again wounded. In 1761, during
his absence in America, he was chosen M.P. for the county of Inverness,
and was constantly rechosen till his death. In the force sent to
Portugal, in 1762, to defend that kingdom against the Spaniards, he was
a brigadier-general. His regiment having been disbanded, Fraser’s
Highlanders were, in 1773, after the breaking out of the American
revolutionary war, again embodied, under the auspices of their former
chief, the Hon. General Fraser, who, in reward of his services, had, the
previous year, received from George the Third, a grant of the forfeited
Lovat estates, his own patrimony. The title, however, of Lord Lovat, was
not restored. The new regiment, of which he was appointed colonel,
consisted of two battalions of two thousand three hundred and four
Highlanders, and were numbered the 71st. When mustered at
Glasgow in April 1762, for embarkation to America, a body of one hundred
and twenty men, who had been raised on the forfeited estate of Lochiel,
with the view of securing the latter a company, finding that their own
chief had not, from illness, been able to join the regiment, hesitated
to embark without him, but General Fraser addressing them in Gaelic,
succeeded in removing their scruples. General Stewart relates that when
he had finished speaking, an old Highlander present, who had accompanied
his son to Glasgow, walked up to him, and with that easy familiar
intercourse which in those days subsisted between the Highlanders and
their superiors, shook him by the hand, exclaiming, “Simon, you are a
good soldier, and speak like a man; as long as you live Simon of Lovat
will never die;” alluding to the general’s address and manner, which, as
was said, resembled much that of his father, Lord Lovat. He was
eventually promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general, and died, without
issue, 8th Feb. 1782. Mrs. Grant of Laggan states that in him
a pleasing exterior covered a large share of his father’s character, and
that “no heart was ever harder, – no hands more rapacious than his.”
General Fraser was succeeded by his half-brother, Colonel Archibald
Campbell Fraser of Lovat, appointed consul-general at Algiers in 1766,
and chosen M.P. for Inverness-shire, on the general’s death in 1782. By
his wife, Jane, sister of William Fraser, Esq. of Leadclune, F.R.S.,
created a baronet, 27th November 1806, he had five sons, all
of whom he survived. On his death, in December 1815, the male
descendants of Hugh ninth Lord Lovat, became extinct, and the male
representation of the family, as well as the right to its extensive
entailed estates, devolved on the junior descendant of Alexander sixth
lord, Thomas Alexander Fraser, of Lovat and Struchen, who claimed the
title of Lord Lovat in the peerage of Scotland, and in 1837 was created
a peer of the United Kingdom, by that of Baron Lovat of Lovat. [See
LOVAT of Lovat, Lord.]
His lordship’s great-grandfather, Alexander Fraser of Strichen, the son
of Thomas Fraser of Strichen and Emilia Stewart, second daughter of
James Lord Doune, was an eminent judge of the court of session. He
passed advocate 23d June 1722, and was afterwards one of the
commissaries of Edinburgh. Admitted a lord of session 5th
June 1730, he took his seat by the title of Lord Strichen, and was
appointed a lord of justiciary, 11th June 1735. Being one of
the judges at the autumn circuit court at Inverness that year, he was
met a few miles from the town, by his kinsman Simon Lord Lovat, attended
by a great retinue, eager to honour and congratulate him on his new
judicial dignity. Having been appointed general of the Scottish Mint in
1764, he resigned his seat as a justiciary judge, but retained his
office in the court of session till his death. He is remarkable for
having sat the unusually long period of forty-five years on the bench.
At the time of the great Douglas cause in 1768, he was the oldest
Scottish judge, being of no less than twenty-four years longer standing
than any of his brethren. He is supposed to have been one of the judges
at the famous trial of Effie Deans in 1736, on which Scott’s novel of
‘The Heart of Mid Lothian’ is founded. He married in 1731, the countess
of Bute, and died at Strichen house, Aberdeenshire, 15th
February 1776, at the age of 76. [Scots Mag. vol. xxxvii. p.
111.]
_____
Sir William Fraser, of Leadclune, created a baronet in 1806, above
mentioned, descended from Alexander, 2d son of Hugh 2d Lord Lovat, was
in the naval service of the East India Company, and commanded two of
their ships, ‘the Lord Mansfield,’ in 1772, which was lost in coming out
of the Bengal river in 1773; and ‘the Earl of Mansfield,’ from 1777 to
1785. He had 3 sons and 11 daughters, and died 10th Feb.
1818.
His eldest son, Sir William Fraser, second baronet, died unmarried, 23d
Dec. 1827, in India, where he had an official appointment. Sir William’s
surviving brother, Sir James John Fraser, third baronet, a
lieutenant-colonel in the army, served with the 7th hussars
in Spain, and was on the staff at Waterloo. He married Charlotte Anne,
only daughter of David Craufurd, Esq., and niece of the gallant
Major-general Robert Craufurd, killed at Cuidad Rodrigo. He died 5th
June 1834, leaving three sons.
The eldest son, Sir William Augustus Fraser, fourth baronet, born in
1826, was educated at Christ church, Oxford, and in 1847 was appointed
an officer in the first life guards. In 1852 he was elected M.P. for
Barnstaple. His brother, Charles Craufurd, major in the army (1858), was
at one time aide-de-camp to the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and highly
distinguished himself in India. The 3d brother, James Keith, is a
captain first life guards (1860).
FRASER, SIR SIMON,
a renowned warrior and patriot, the son of Sir Simon Fraser, last lord
of Tweeddale and Oliver castle, Peebles-shire, who died in 1299, and
Mary, eldest daughter of Sir John Bisset of Lovat, the chief of the
Bissets, was born in 1257. With his father and family he adhered
faithfully to the interest of John Baliol, till the latter himself
betrayed his own cause. In 1296, when Edward the First invaded Scotland,
Sir Simon was one of those true-hearted patriots whom the English
monarch carried with him to England, where he continued close prisoner
for eight months. In Jun 1297 he and his cousin, Sir Richard Fraser,
submitted to Edward, and engaged to accompany that monarch in his
designed expedition to France, but requested permission to go for a
short time to Scotland, pledging themselves to deliver up their wives
and children for their faithful fulfilment of the engagement.
On his return to his native country, Sir Simon, not considering his
forced obligation with King Edward binding in conscience, joined Sir
William Wallace, guardian of the kingdom, and gave so many distinguished
proofs of his valour and patriotism, that when that illustrious hero, in
a full assembly of the nobles at Perth, resigned his double commission
of general of the army and guardian of the kingdom, Sir Simon Fraser was
chosen his successor in the post of commander of the Scots army, while
Sir John Comyn of Badenoch, Wallace’s greatest enemy, was appointed
guardian, on account of his near relation to the crown.
In summer 1302, two separate English armies were sent into Scotland, the
one commanded by King Edward in person, and the other by the prince of
Wales, his son (afterwards the unfortunate Edward the Second), but the
Scots, prudently avoiding a regular engagement, contented themselves
with intercepting the English convoys, and cutting off detached parties
of the enemy. In the meantime a truce was agreed upon till November 30,
which was prolonged till Easter 1303. But the English general broke the
truce, and passed the borders in February, at the had of thirty thousand
well-appointed soldiers. Meeting with no opposition on their march, for
the convenience of forage, and to enable them to harass the country the
more effectually, they divided into three bodies, and on the 24th
of that month, advanced to Roslin near Edinburgh, where they encamped at
a considerable distance from each other. The Scots leaders, Sir John
Comyn and Sir Simon Fraser, hastily collecting about ten thousand men
together, marched from Biggar during the night, and next day defeated in
succession the three divisions of the English army, or rather the three
separate armies of English. This happened February 25, 1302-3. This
victory raised the character of the Scots for courage all over Europe;
and Sir Simon Fraser’s conduct on the occasion is spoken of in high
terms by our ancient historians. Fordun, in his Scotichronicon, says,
that he was not only the main instrument in gaining this remarkable
battle, but in keeping Sir John Comyn to his duty as guardian during the
four years of his administration.
Highly incensed at this threefold defeat at Roslin, Edward entered
Scotland in May following, at the head of a vast heterogeneous host,
consisting of English, Irish, Welsh, Gascons, and some recreant Scots.
Not being able to cope with such a force in the open field, most of the
nation betook themselves to strong castles and mountains inaccessible to
all but themselves, while the English monarch penetrated as far as
Caithness. Being thus in a manner in possession of the country, the
guardian, Sir John Comyn, and many of the nobility, submitted to him in
February 1303-4; but Sir Simon Fraser refusing to do so, was among those
who were expressly excepted from the general conditions of the
capitulation made at Strathorde on the 9th of that month. It
was also provided that he should be banished for three years not only
from Scotland but from the dominions of Edward, including France; and he
was ordered, besides, to pay a fine of three years’ rent of his lands.
Sir Simon, in the meantime, concealed himself in the north till 1306,
when he joined Robert the Bruce, who in that year asserted his right to
the throne. It is probable that he was present at King Robert’s
coronation at Scone, as we find him at the fatal battle of Methven soon
after; on which occasion the king owed his life to his valour and
presence of mind, having been by him three times rescued and remounted,
after having had three horses killed under him. He escaped with the
king, whom he attended into Argyleshire, and was with him at the battle
of Dalry. On the separation of the small party which accompanied King
Robert, Sir Simon, it is thought, also left him for a short period. But
after the king had lurked for some time among the hills, Sir Simon, with
Sir Alexander his brother, and some of his friends, rejoined him, when
they attacked the castle of Inverness, and then marched through the
Aird, afterwards the country of the clan Fraser, to Dingwall, taking the
castle there, and thereafter through Moray, all the fortresses
surrendering to Bruce on their way.
In 1307 Sir Simon was, with Sir Walter Logan of the house of Restalrig,
treacherously seized by some of the adherents of the earl of Buchan, one
of the chiefs of the Comyns, who sent them in irons to London. When such
men as the earl of Athol; Niel, Thomas, and Alexander Bruce, the king’s
brothers; Sir Christopher Seton, and his brother John; Herbert Norham;
Thomas Bois; Adam Wallace, brother of Sir William, and that great hero
himself, were put to death, Sir Simon Fraser and Sir Walter Logan had
nothing to expect from Edward’s mercy. Accordingly they were both
beheaded, but Sir Simon’s fate was more severe than was than of any of
the rest. He was kept in fetters while in the Tower, and on the day of
execution he was dragged through the streets as a traitor, hanged on a
high gibbet as a thief, and his head cut off as a murderer. His body,
after being exposed for twenty days to the derision of the mob, was
thrown across a wooden horse, and consumed by fire, while his head was
fixed on the point of a lance, and placed near that of Sir William
Wallace on London Bridge. Against these merciless executions, which were
more dishonouring to Edward’s memory than to the illustrious patriots,
his victims, the lord chief justice of England remonstrated with
dignity, declaring to the savage monarch, “That he had no authority to
put prisoners of war to death.” But Edward turned a deaf ear to all such
remonstrances. For Simon’s issue see the previous.
FRASER, SIR ALEXANDER,
physician to Charles the Second, belonged to the ancient family of
Fraser of Durris. He was educated in Aberdeen, and by his professional
gains and fortunate marriage was enabled to re-purchase the inheritance
of his forefathers. We are told that “he was wont to compare the air of
Durris to that of Windsor, reckoned the finest in England.” He
accompanied Charles the second in his expedition to Scotland in 1650,
and seems to have been particularly obnoxious to the Covenanters. On the
27th September of that year he and several others, described
as “profaine, scandalous, malignant, and disaffected persons,” were
ordered by the committee of Estates to remove from the court within
twenty-four hours, under pain of imprisonment. His name is conspicuous
in the Rolls of the Scottish parliament during the reign of Charles the
Second, and occurs occasionally in the pages of Papys. Spottiswoode, in
his History of the Church of Scotland, speaks highly of his learning and
medical skill. He died in 1681.
FRASER, SIMON, 12th Lord Lovat,
one of the most remarkable of the actors in the rebellion of 1745, was
the second son of Thomas Fraser, styled of Beaufort, by Sybilla,
daughter of Macleod of Macleod, and was born in 1667. Beaufort was
another name of Castle Counie, the chief seat of the family, and did not
belong to Simon’s father at the time of his birth. He had a small house
in Tanich, in the parish of Urray, Ross-shire, where it is supposed that
the future Lord Lovat was born. At the proper age he became a student at
King’s college, Old Aberdeen, the favourite university of the Celts, and
in 1694, while prosecuting his studies, he accepted of a commission in
the regiment of Lord Murray, afterwards earl of Tullibardine, procured
for him by his cousin, Hugh Lord Lovat. Having, in 1626, accompanied the
latter to London, he found means to ingratiate himself so much with his
lordship, that he was prevailed upon to make a universal bequest to him
of all his estates in case he should die without make issue. On the
death of Lord Lovat soon after, Simon Fraser began to style himself
master of Lovat, while his father, “Thomas of Beaufort,” took possession
of the honours and estates of the family. To render his claims
indisputable, however, Simon paid his addresses to the daughter of the
late lord, who had assumed the title of baroness of Lovat, and having
prevailed on her to consent to elope with him, would have carried his
design of marrying her into execution, had not their mutual confident,
Fraser of Tenechiel, after conducting the young lady forth one winter
night in such precipitate haste, that she is said to have walked
barefooted, failed in his trust, and restored her again to her mother.
The heiress was then removed out of the reach of his artifices by her
uncle, the marquis of Athol, to his stronghold at Dunkeld.
Determined not to be baulked in his object, the master of Lovat resolved
upon marrying the lady Amelia Murray, dowager baroness of Lovat; but as
she would not consent to the match, he had recourse to compulsory
measures, and, entering the house of Beaufort, or Castle Dounie, where
the lady resided, he had the nuptial ceremony performed by a clergyman
whom he brought along with him, and immediately afterwards, it is said,
forcibly consummated the marriage before witnesses. He afterwards
conveyed her, her brother Lord Mungo Murray and Lord Saltoun, whom he
had forcibly seized at the wood of Bunchrew, on his return from a visit
to her at Castle Dounie, to the island of Aigas, where he kept them for
some time prisoners. Having by these proceedings incurred the enmity of
the marquis of Athol, who was the brother of the dowager Lady Lovat, he
was, in consequence of a representation made to the privy council,
intercommuned, letters of “fire and sword” were issued against him and
all his clan, and on Sept. 5, 1698, he and ten other persons of the name
were tried, in absence, before the high court of justiciary for high
treason, rape, and other crimes, when being found guilty of treason, to
which the lord advocate restricted the charges in the indictment, they
were condemned to be executed, and their lands declared forfeited. His
father having died in 1699, he assumed the title of Lord Lovat, but in
consequence of the proceedings against him he was compelled to quit the
kingdom. After a short stay in London, he went to France, for the
purpose of lodging a complaint against the marquis of Athol with the
exiled king at St. Germains; after which he had the address to obtain an
interview with King William, who was then at Loo in the United
Provinces; and having obtained, through the influence of the duke of
Argyle, a remission of his sentence, and a pardon of all crimes that
could be alleged against him, – which, however, was restricted, on
passing the Scottish seals, to the crime of which he had been found
guilty, – he ventured to return to Scotland. He was immediately cited
before the high court of justiciary, on 17th February 1701,
for the outrage done to the dowager Lady Lovat, and, not appearing, he
was outlawed. On the 19th February 1702 her ladyship
presented a petition against him for letters of intercommuning, for
levying the rents of the Lovat estates, which a second time were granted
against him and his abettors. He now deemed it advisable to return to
France, which he reached in July of that year, after the accession of
Queen Anne to the throne. Previous to his departure from Scotland, he
had visited several of the chiefs of clans and principal Jacobites in
the lowlands, and engaged them to grant him a general commission
engaging to take up arms in support of the Stuart cause; possessed of
which he immediately joined in all the intrigues of the exiled court of
St. Germains, and even managed to obtain some private interviews with
Louis the Fourteenth. By that monarch a valuable sword and some other
tokens of reminiscence were bestowed on him as a mark of his confidence.
He had also some meetings with two of the French ministers of state, on
a project which he had proposed to the ex-queen, Mary of Modena, acting
in her son’s name, a boy at that time only fourteen years of age, for
the invasion of Scotland and the raising of the Highland clans.
He returned to Scotland in 1703, with a colonel’s commission in the
Pretender’s service, and accompanied by John Murray, brother of Murray
of Abercairney, who was authorised to ascertain if Lovat’s
representations, as to the intentions of the Jacobite chiefs, had been
warranted by them. Immediately after his return he had interviews with
his cousin Stuart of Appin, Cameron of Lochiel, the laird of MacGregor,
Lord Drummond, and others, on the subject of a rising, but meeting with
little encouragement, he resolved to betray the whole plot to
government; which he did in a secret audience with the duke of
Queensberry, who was then at the head of Scottish affairs. On his
re-appearance in Scotland, letters of “fire and sword” had again been
issued against h im and his followers, and he prevailed on Queensberry
to grant him a pass to London, that he might be out of the reach of
danger. With his grace he had some more secret interviews in London, and
soon after he returned to France, by way of Holland, with the object of
obtaining for government further secret information about the projects
of the exiled court. In passing through Holland he assumed the disguise
of an officer in the Dutch service, but soon after his arrival in Paris,
he was, by the french government, at the instance of the exiled queen,
arrested, sent to the Bastille, and afterwards imprisoned for three
years in the castle of Angouleme, and seven years in the city of Saumur,
where he is said to have taken priest’s orders, and become a renowned
popular preacher.
After making many fruitless efforts to regain his liberty, – the exiled
court having refused to sanction his release, – he at last resolved, on
the death of Queen Anne, to endeavour to make his escape, which he
effected with the aid of Major Fraser, one of his kinsmen, who had been
sent over by his clan to discover where he was, and to learn his
intentions, in the event of an insurrection in favour of the Stuarts.
Reaching Boulogne in safety, and there hiring a boat, they sailed on 14th
November 1714, and after a storm, landed at Dover next afternoon. On his
arrival in London, he kept himself concealed for some time; but at the
instigation of his enemy the marquis of Athol, a warrant was issued
against him, and on the 11th of the following June, he was
arrested in his lodgings in Soho Square, and, with the major, kept for
some time in a sponging house, but at last obtained his liberty, on the
earl of Sutherland, John Forbes of Culloden, and some other gentlemen,
becoming bail for him to the extent of £5,000.
He remained in London till October 1715, when the rebellion having
broken out, he returned to Scotland as one of his brother john’s
attendants, being still under the sentence of outlawry. In a vindication
of his conduct addressed to Lord Islay he says, that on this occasion he
was taken prisoner at Newcastle, Longtown, near Carlisle, Dumfries, and
Lanark, but succeeded in reaching Stirling. He proceeded thence to
Edinburgh, to embark at Leith for the north, but had not been there two
house when he was apprehended by order of the lord justice clerk, and
would have been sent to the castle had he not been delivered, he does
not say how, by Provost John Campbell. A few days after he sailed from
Leith with John Forbes of Culloden, but their vessel was pursued and
fired upon by several large Fife boats in possession of the rebels. On
arriving in his own country, he was just in time to be of considerable
service to the royal cause and to his own interests. Joining two hundred
of his clan who were waiting for him under arms in Stratherrick, he
concerted a plan with the Grants, and Duncan Forbes of Culloden,
afterwards president of the court of session, for recovering Inverness
from the rebels, in which they were successful. For his zeal and
activity on this occasion he had his reward. The young baroness of Lovat
had married, in 1702, Alexander Mackenzie, younger of Prestonhall, who
thereupon assumed the name of Fraser of Fraserdale; but engaging in the
rebellion of 1715, he was obliged to leave the country, and being
outlawed and attainted, his liferent of the estate of Lovat was
bestowed, by a grant from the Crown, dated 23d August 1716, on Simon,
Lord Lovat, “for his many brave and loyal services done and performed to
his majesty,” particularly in the late rebellion. A memorial in his
lordship’s favour, signed by about seventy individuals, including the
earl of Sutherland, the members of parliament and the sheriffs of the
northern counties, having been presented to the king, George the First,
his pardon had been granted on the 10th of the preceding
March, and on the 23d June following he had a private audience with his
majesty. In 1721 he voted by list at the election of a representative
peer, when his title was questioned. His vote was again objected to at
the general elections of 1722 and 1727. In consequence of which, he
brought a declaration of his right to the title before the court of
session, and their judgment, pronounced July3, 1730, was in his favour.
To prevent an appeal, a compromise was entered into with Hugh Mackenzie,
son of the baroness, who, on the death of his mother, had assumed the
title, whereby, for a valuable consideration, he ceded to Simon Lord
Lovat his claim to the honours and his right to the estate after his
father’s death.
Although Lord Lovat had deemed it best for his own purposes to join the
friends of the government in 1715, he was, nevertheless, throughout his
whole career, a thorough Jacobite in principle; and in 1740 he was the
first to sign the Association for the support of the Pretender, who
promised to create him duke of Fraser, and lieutenant-general, and
general of the Highlands. On the breaking out of the rebellion in 1745,
he sent his eldest son, much against the young man’s inclination, with a
body of his clan to join the army under Prince Charles, while he himself
remained at home. After the disastrous defeat at Culloden, the young
Pretender took refuge, on the evening of the battle, at Gortuleg, the
house of one of the gentlemen of his clan, near the Fall of Foyers,
where his lordship was then living, and not at Castle Dounie, as
erroneously supposed by Sir Walter Scott. According to Mrs. Grant of
Laggan’s account of the meeting, Lovat expressed attachment to him, but
at the same time reproached him with great asperity for declaring his
intention to abandon the enterprise entirely. “‘Remember,” said he
fiercely, “your great ancestor, Robert Bruce, who lost eleven battles,
and won Scotland by the twelfth.” Lovat himself afterwards retired from
the pursuit of the king’s forces to the mountains, but not finding
himself safe there, he escaped in a boat to an island in Loch Morar.
Thither he was pursued, taken prisoner, being found concealed in a
hollow tree, with his legs muffled in flannel, and carried to London.
His trial for high treason commenced before the House of Lords, March 7,
1747, He was found guilty on Marcy 18; sentence of death was pronounced
next day; and he was beheaded on Tower Hill, April 9, 1747, in the
eightieth year of his age. His behaviour while in the Tower was cheerful
and collected. When advised by his friends to petition the king for
mercy, he absolutely refused, saying he was old and infirm, and his life
was not worth asking. His estates and honours were forfeited to the
Crown, but the former were restored in 1774 to h is eldest son, as
already mentioned earlier.
Lord Lovat’s appearance, in his old age, was grotesque and singular.
Besides his forced marriage with the dowager Lady Lovat above described,
he entered twice, during that lady’s life, into the matrimonial state;
first, in 1717, with Margaret, fourth daughter of Ludovick Grant of
Grant, by whom he had two sons and two daughters; and, secondly, in
1733, after that lady’s death, with Primrose, fifth daughter of John
Campbell of Mamore, brother to the duke of Argyle. By this lady he had
one son. The lady’s objections to the marriage he is said to have
overcome by the following stratagem: She received a letter purporting to
be from her mother, in a dangerous state of health, desiring her
presence in a particular house in Edinburgh. On hastening to the house
indicated, she found Lovat waiting for her there, when he informed her
that the house was devoted to purposes which stamped infamy on any
female who was known to h ave entered it. To save her character, she
married, him, but is said to have been treated by him with so much
barbarity as to be obliged to leave his house, when he was forced to
allow her a separate maintenance. Of the eldest son, General Simon
Fraser, born 19th October, 1726, an account has been already
given. The second son, Alexander, born in 1729, after serving in the
army abroad, returned to the Highlands with the title of brigadier.
Janet, the elder daughter, married Macpherson of Clunie. Sybilla, the
younger, died unmarried. On the faith of his ‘Memoirs written by himself
in the French language,’ Lord Lovat has been admitted into Walpole’s
list of Royal and Noble Authors. The subjoined woodcut is taken from his
well-known portrait by Hogarth:
[portrait of Lord Lovat]
FRASER, ROBERT, F.R.S.,
an eminent statistical writer, eldest son of the Rev. George Fraser,
minister, first of Redgorton, and afterwards of Monedie, Perthshire, a
lineal descendant of one of the Frasers of Farraline in Stratherrick,
was born in the manse of Redgorton, about 1760. At an early age he was
sent, with his cousin, the celebrated antiquarian, Thomas Thomson, Esq.,
of the General Register House, Edinburgh, to the university of Glasgow,
and placed under the care of their uncle, Professor Traill of that
college. Here he became remarkable for the accuracy and extent of his
scholarship, and was admitted to the degree of master of arts before he
was fifteen years of age. He studied for the Church of Scotland, but on
leaving college he went as a tutor to a family in the Isle of Man, and
afterwards proceeded to London, where he attracted the notice of Mr.
Pitt, then prime minister, and was employed by the government in various
statistical inquiries regarding the Isle of Man, and the counties of
Devon and Cornwall. He subsequently obtained an official appointment in
the establishment of the prince of Wales (afterwards George the Fourth).
As he had shown considerable zeal and ability in his endeavours to
increase the resources of the country, by improvements in the fisheries
and mining interests of Great Britain and Ireland, he was applied to, in
1791, by the earl of Breadalbane, to accompany him on a tour through the
Western Isles and Highlands of Scotland, with a view to the discovery of
the best means of promoting the welfare of the inhabitants. On making
application for leave to the prince of Wales, he received from his royal
highness a note, of which the following is an extract: “Whatever neglect
may happen in the department intrusted to you in my affairs, I think it
is of so much consequence to the improvement of those counties that the
earl of Breadalbane should interest himself about them, that you have
not only my leave, but my best wishes for your success, and if on your
return you have anything you would wish to report, I myself will take it
to the king, as I know there is nothing nearer his majesty’s heart than
the desire of promoting the happiness and prosperity of those parts of
the kingdom.”
Mr. Fraser was subsequently chosen by the government to carry out a
series of statistical surveys in Ireland, and he was the means of
originating several important works in that country, among others the
celebrated harbour of Kingstown, (sometimes called Queenstown,) in the
neighbourhood of Dublin. He died in 1831. His eldest son, the Rev.
Robert William Fraser, M.A., became, in 1844, minister of the parish of
St. John’s, Edinburgh. His next brother, Major William Fraser, Hon. East
India Company’s service, founded the celebrated stud of the Company at
Pusa, of which he was appointed superintendent. He was on the staff of
Sir David Baird at the storming of Seringapatam, and translated from the
Persian, a valuable work on horsemanship, which was printed at Calcutta
in 1802, 4to.
Mr. Fraser’s works are:
Statistical Account of the County of Wexford, 8vo.
General View of the Agriculture and Mineralogy of the County of Wicklow,
Dublin, 1801, 8vo.
Gleanings in Ireland; particularly respecting its Agriculture, Mines,
and Fisheries. London, 1802, 8vo.
Letter to the Right Hon. Charles Abbot, Speaker of the House of Commons,
on the most effectual Means for the Improvement of the Coasts and
Western Islands of Scotland, and the extension of the Fisheries. London,
1803, 8vo.
The Statistical Account of the Counties of Devon and Cornwall, drawn up
and printed by order of the House of Commons. London, 1804, 4to.
Review of the Domestic Fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland.
Edinburgh, 1818, 4to.
FRASER, ROBERT,
an ingenious poet, remarkable also for his facility in the acquisition
of languages, the son of a sea-faring man, was born June 24, 1798, in
the village of Pathhead, parish of Dysart, Fifeshire. In the summer of
1802 he was sent to a school in his native village, and after being
eighteen months there, and about four years at another school, he went
to the town’s school of Pathhead, and early in 1809 commenced the study
of the Latin language. In 1812 he was apprenticed to a wine and spirit
merchant in Kirkcaldy, with whom he remained four years. In the summer
of 1813 he was afflicted with an abscess in his right arm, which
confined him to the house for several months, during which time he
studied the Latin language more closely than ever, and afterwards added
the Greek, French, and Italian; and acquired a thorough knowledge of
general literature.
In 1817, on the expiry of his apprenticeship, he became clerk or
book-keeper to a respectable ironmonger in Kirkcaldy, and in the spring
of 1819 he commenced business as an ironmonger in that town, in
partnership with Mr. James Robertson. In March 1820 he married Miss Ann
Cumming, who, with eight children, survived him. His leisure time was
invariably devoted to the acquisition of knowledge; and in September
1825 he commenced the study of the German language. About this period
his shop was broken into during the night, and jewellery to the value of
£200 stolen from it, of which, or of the robbers, no trace was ever
discovered.
Having made himself master not only of the German but of the Spanish
languages, he translated from both various pieces of poetry, which, as
well as some original productions of his, evincing much simplicity,
grace, and tenderness, appeared in the Edinburgh Literary Gazette, the
Edinburgh Literary Journal, and various of the newspapers of the period.
In August 1833 his copartnership with Mr. Robertson was dissolved, and
he commenced business on his own account. Owing, however, to the sudden
death, in 1836, of a friend in whose pecuniary affairs he was deeply
involved, and the decline of this own health, his business,
notwithstanding his well-known steadiness, industry, and application,
did not prosper, and, in 1837, he was under the necessity of compounding
with his creditors. It is much to his credit that several respectable
merchants of his native town offered to become security for the
composition.
In March 1838, he was appointed editor of the Fife Herald, and on
leaving Kircaldy he was, on August 31st of that year,
entertained at a public dinner by a numerous party of his townsmen, when
he was presented with a copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, seventh
edition, as a testimonial of respect for his talents and private
character. Declining health prevented him from long exercising the
functions of an editor, and on being at last confined to bed, the duties
were performed for him by a friend. In the intervals of acute pain he
employed himself in arranging his poems with a view to publication; and
among the last acts of his life was the dictation of some Norwegian or
Danish translations. He died May 22, 1839. His ‘Poetical Remains,’ with
a well written and discriminating memoir of the author by Mr. David
Vedder, was published soon after his death.
