Fraser

James Logan's "The Clans of the Scottish Highlands" was published to celebrate the centenary of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. It was illustrated by Robert R McIan.<br /> <br /> It is generally believed that the name Fraser traces its origins to the French provinces of Anjou and Normandy. Frasers are found in the south of Scotland as early as 1160 when Simon Fraser gifted a church at Keith in East Lothian to the monks at Kelso Abbey. The Frasers later moved from the Borders into the counties of Stirling, Angus, Inverness and Aberdeen. During the Wars of Independence, Sir Simon Fraser was captured fighting for Robert the Bruce, and was cruelly executed by the English. Sir Alexander Fraser, Chamberlain of Scotland, married Robert the Bruce's sister, who had been imprisoned in a cage by the English. From him descend the Frasers of Saltoun. One of his descendants, another Sir Alexander Fraser, founded the town of Fraser's Burgh (Fraserburgh) by royal charters obtained in 1592.<br /> <br /> The Frasers of Lovat descend from Sir Simon Fraser (younger brother of Sir Alexander Fraser, the Chamberlain), who married Lady Margaret, sister of the Earl of Caithness. Among the territory acquired by the Lovat Frasers were lands in Stratherrick, the church lands of Beauly Priory in Inverness-shire, part of the south shore of the Beauly Firth, and the lands of Bisset. About 1460 Hugh Fraser, 6th laird of Lovat, became the first Lord Lovat. Another Hugh, son of the 4th Lord Lovat, was killed at Blar-na-Leine - the Battle of the Shirts - in 1544, when the Frasers supported the cause of Ranald for the chiefship of Clan Ranald against the claim of John of Moidart.<br /> <br /> In 1715, Sir Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, led his clan on the government side, but in 1745 he changed his views and suffered the consequences. He was beheaded on Tower Hill in London in 1747, following which the title was attainted and the Lovat estates were forfeited to the Crown. His son Simon was pardoned and, in 1757, raised a regiment of Frasers for service in North America. The regiment was disbanded in 1763 and many of the men stayed in America as settlers. A further Fraser regiment was raised in 1775 and disbanded in 1783. In 1837 the peerage and estates were restored to a cousin, Thomas Fraser of Strichen, from whom the present Lord Lovat is descended