Clan Fraser: Difference between revisions

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The Clan Fraser (Gaelic - Clann Frisealach, French "Clan Frasier") is a Scottish clan of French origin. The Clan has been strongly associated with Inverness and the surrounding area since the Clan's founder gained lands there in the 13th century. Since its founding, the Clan has dominated local politics and been been active in every major military conflict involving Scotland. It has also played a considerable role in most major political turmoils.

The Clan's current chief is Simon Fraser, the 16th Lord Lovat, and 25th Chief of the Clan. The arms of Clan Fraser are Quarterly: 1st and 4th Azure, three fraises Argent, 2nd and 3rd Gules, three antique crowns Or, or in layman's terms, the traditional three cinquefoils, or Fraises (strawberry flowers), as they have come to be known, in the first and fourth positions and three crowns in the second and third positions. Only the Lord Lovat is allowed use of these arms plain and undifferenced.^[1]

The most probable origin for the Clan's name are the French words fraise, meaning strawberry (the fruit), and fraisiers, strawberry plants.^[1] The Frasers probably come from Anjou, in France, and it has been suggested that they descend from a tribe called Friselii in Roman Gaul, whose badge was a strawberry plant. In his Bello Gallico, Julius Caesar mentions this tribe as wearing red checked pants, something reminiscent of the Red & Black tartan in use by many Frasers today.^[1] But any connection between the Gaulish tribe and the origin of the Gaelic Clan is purely speculative.

One account, favoured by Archibald Campbell Fraser of Lovat, and Sir George MacKenzie, Lord Advocate of Scotland, derives the Clan's descent from Pierre Fraser, Seigneur de Troile, who came to Scotland with the ambassadors of Charlemagne, around 807. This account mentions the arms of the family, which are a field azure, semi, with strawberries flowers, or fraises. The only difference is that the arms once contained more strawberry flowers. Pierre was made Thegn of the Isle of Man in 814, and one group of Frasers still live there today under the Gaelic name of Frisael. His direct descendants were to become the lords of Oliver Castle.^[2] There are many variations upon this tale.^[3]

Another account tells a tale involving William the Lion.^[4] Yet another account, the stories of Julius de Berry, were regarded by Archibald Campbell Fraser to have been of a second group of Frasers.^[2]

The earliest written record of Frasers in Scotland is in 1160, when a Simon Fraser held lands in East Lothian at Keith. In that year, he made the gift of a church to the Tironensian monks at Kelso Abbey.^[1] The Frasers moved into Tweeddale in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and from there into the counties of Stirling, Angus, Inverness and Aberdeen.^[2]

Sir Simon Fraser of Oliver acquired the Bisset Lands around Beauly when he won the hand of its heiress, a young Bissett. King Alexander III granted the right of the "Lordship of Loveth, vulgo Morich," in the Aird, in 1253.^[2][5]These lands were given to, Simon Fraser of Lovat, either his son or cousin, from whom the Clan Fraser claims descent.^[2] Sir Simon held other lands in Aberdeen, which were given to his eldest son (or cousin), Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie. It is from Alexander that the Frasers of Philorth descend. In 1336, Thomas Fraser, of the Frasers of Muchalls, gained the estates of Stonywood and Muchalls in Kincardineshire, and soon erected a tower house stronghold overlooking the North Sea. This tower house was later expanded, and became known as Muchalls Castle.^[6]

During the Scottish Wars of Independence, Sir Simon Fraser, known as "the Patriot," fought first with the Red Comyn, and later with Sir William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.^[2]

Sir Simon is celebrated for having defeated the English in three separate engagements at the Battle of Roslin in 1303, with just 8,000 men under his command. Along with the Clan Fraser, the Red Comyn's Clan Comyn, and the Clan Sinclair are known to have fought at the battle, which took place on 24 February 1303.^[2] At the Battle of Methven in 1306, Sir Simon leads troops along with Bruce, saving the King's life in three separate instances. Simon was allegedly awarded the 3 Crowns which now appear in the Lovat Arms for these three acts of bravery. At the end of the day, he was captured by the English and executed with great cruelty by King Edward in 1306, in the same barbaric fashion as Wallace.^[2] At the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, Sir Simon's cousin, Sir Alexander Fraser of Cowie, was much more fortunate. He fought at Bannockburn, married Bruce's sister, and became Chamberlain of Scotland. The Frasers of Philorth trace their lineage from Alexander.^[2] At the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, Alexander Fraser's three younger brothers, Simon Fraser of Lovat, Andrew, and James, were killed while fighting the English.^[2]

As most all Highlanders, the Frasers have been involved in countless instances of Clan warfare, particularly against the Macdonalds.^[1] Two Gaelic war cries of the Frasers have been generally recognized. The first, "Caisteal Dhuni" (Castle Dounie/Downie) refers to the ancestral Castle and Clan seat, which once existed near the present Beaufort Castle. The second is "A Mhòr-fhaiche" (The Great Field).^[1]

In 1544, the Frasers fought a great clan battle, the Battle of the Shirts (Blar-ne-Léine, in Gaelic) against the Clan MacDonald of Clan Ranald, over the disputed chiefship of Clan Ranald. The Frasers, as part of a large coalition, backed a son of the 5th Chief, Ranald Gallda (the Stranger), which the MacDonalds found unacceptable. The Earl of Argyll intervened, refusing to let the two forces engage. But on their march home, the 300 Frasers were ambushed by 500 MacDonalds. Only five Frasers and eight MacDonalds are said to have survived the battle. Both the Lovat Chief, Hugh Fraser, and his son were amongst the dead and were buried at Beauly Priory.^[1]

Robert Mor Munro, 15th chief of Clan Munro, was a staunch supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots, and he consequently was treated favourably by her son, James VI. Robert was also a faithful friend of Mary. Buchanan, a contemporary, wrote that when the unfortunate princess went to Inverness in 1562: "as soon as they heard of their sovereign's danger, a great number of the most eminent Scots poured in around her, especially the Frasers and Munros, who were esteemed the most 'valiant of the clans inhabiting those countries in the north.' " These two clans took Inverness Castle for the Queen. The Queen later hanged the governor, a Gordon who had refused her admission.^[7]

In 1571 the Clan Fraser joined forces with the Clan Forbes in their centuries-long feud against the Clan Gordon. The Frasers and Forbes were joined by Clan Keith and Clan Crichton. The Gordons were joined by Clan Leslie, Clan Irvine and Clan Seton. The feud culminated in two full scale battles: the Battle of Tillieangus and the Battle of Craibstone. At the first, the 6th Lord Forbes's youngest son, known as Black Aurther Forbes, was killed. Legend has it that "he stooped down to quench his thirst and one of the Gordons gave him his death blow through an open joint in his armour".^[1] A seperate battle took place between the Clan Fraser (with help from the Clan MacRae) and the Clan Logan at Kessock, where Gilligorm, the Chief of the Clan Logan, was killed.^[8]

During the Wars of the Three Kingdoms of 1644–1650, the Clan was as active as ever, supporting the cause of the Covenanters.

In 1645, at the Battle of Auldearn, in Nairnshire, the Clan opposed the Royalist leader James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, and fought under a Fraser of Struy (from a small village at the mouth of Glen Strathfarrar). The battle left eighty-seven Fraser widows.^[9]. A poem about the battle reads:^[1]

In 1649, the Clan Fraser and Clan Munro joined for a second time to assault Inverness Castle. This time, they were also joined by the Clan Urquhart and the Clan MacKenzie, with whom they had recently made peace. The four clans, all opposed to the authority of the current parliament, assaulted the town and took the castle. They then expelled the garrison and raised the fortifications. However, on the approach of the parliamentary forces led by General Leslie, the clans retreated back into Ross-shire. Over the next year, several skirmishes took place between these parties. ^[10] In 1650, at the Battle of Dunbar, the Clan Fraser fought against the forces of Oliver Cromwell. However, the Covenanters were defeated.^[11] In 1651, the Clan Fraser joined the King's army at Stirling. They fought at the Battle of Worcester where the King's army was defeated by Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army.^[12]

In 1689, the Glorious Revolution deposed the Roman Catholic King James VII as monarch of England, replacing the King with his Protestant daughter Mary and her husband and cousin William of Orange. Swiftly following in March, a Convention of the Estates was convened in Edinburgh, which supported William & Mary as joint monarchs of Scotland. However, to much of Scotland, particularly in the Highlands, James was still considered the rightful, legitimate King.

On 16 April 1689 John Graham of Claverhouse, Viscount Dundee, raised the royal standard of the recently deposed King James VII on the hilltop of Dundee Law. Many of the Highland clans rallied swiftly to his side. The chief of the Clan Fraser, Thomas Fraser, tried to keep the members of his clan from joining the uprising, to no avail: The Clan marched without him, and fought at the Battle of Killiecrankie. In 1690, Thomas gave in and joined them.^[13]

The Clan Fraser was split during The Fifteen. While some supported the Jacobite cause, Simon "the Fox" Fraser, Chief at the time, supported the British Government. In 1715 Simon (who had been outlawed and in exile, by Stewarts), put pressure on the Jacobite garrison in Inverness. The Jacobites at Inverness were trapped by Fraser. The Clan MacDonald of Keppoch did attempt to relieve them, but their path was blocked by the Frasers, and Keppoch was forced to retreat.^[14] Inverness was delivered up to Fraser on the very day when the Battle of Sheriffmuir was fought and another Jacobite force was defeated at the Battle of Preston. Soon after this 31 year old Chief Colonel Robert Munro of Foulis marched into the town of Inverness with 400 Munros and took over control as governor from Fraser. In 1719 the Clan Fraser fought for the British government at the Battle of Glenshiel where they helped defeat the Jacobites and MacKenzies alike.^[13]

On 2 August 1745, a frigate successfully landed Bonnie Prince Charlie, grandson of James VII with his seven men of Moidart on the island of Eriskay in the Outer Hebrides. He would go on to raise the royal standard at Glenfinnan, and lead the second Jacobite rising in Scotland. The by-now-infamous Simon "the Fox" Fraser supported the Jacobites and Bonnie Prince Charlie during The '45. One very strong reasoning for this was that Simon had been created Duke of Fraser, Marquess of Beaufort, Earl of Stratherrick and Abertarf, Viscount of the Aird and Strathglass and Lord Lovat and Beauly in the Jacobite Peerage of Scotland by James Francis Edward Stuart in 1740. Frasers were on the front lines of the Jacobite army at the Battle of Falkirk (1746), and the Battle of Culloden in 1746.^[13]

At the Battle of Culloden, Frasers made up the largest Centre Regiment of the Front line, with 400 men under Charles Fraser of Inverallochy, and Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat (the Fox was, conveniently, not present at the battle, reportedly trying to gather dispersed Clansmen to fight). Being on the front line, the Frasers were one of the few units to actually close with Government forces, breaking through Barrell’s regiment with 800-900 other Highlanders (Atholl men, Camerons, Stewarts of Appin), the ferocious Frasers were massacred by the Government second line. Shortly after the Battle of Culloden, Simon the Fox watched his castle go down in flames.^[13]

In 1746 Castle Dounie was burnt to the ground, while the Fox was on the run. He was tried for treason and executed in London on 9 April 1747, and his estates and titles were forfeited to the Crown. Many noted that the man possessed the utmost dignity to the end.^[13]

The Fox's son, Simon Fraser escaped punishment, and was pardoned - later raising a Fraser regiment for the British army which fought in Canada in the 1750s, including Quebec.^[13] Charles Fraser was mortally wounded and found by General Hawley on the field, who ordered one of his aides, a young James Wolfe to finish him off with a pistol. Wolfe refused, so Hawley got a common soldier to do it.^[13] We also know the fate of some of the clansmen. David Fraser of Glen Urquhart, who was a deaf-mute had, it was said, charged and killed seven redcoats, but was captured and died in prison. John Fraser, also called ‘MacIver’ was shot in the knee, taken prisoner and put before a firing squad, but was then rescued by a British officer, Lord Boyd, who was sick of the slaughter. Another John Fraser, who was Provost of Inverness tried to get fair treatment for the prisoners.^[13]

Castle Dounie was replaced by a small square building costing £300 in which the Royal Commissioner resided until 1774, when some of the forfeited Lovat estates were granted by an Act of Parliament to his son, Simon Fraser (1726-1782), by then a major general, in recognition of his military service to the Crown and the payment of some £20,000.^[13] Later, two modest wings were added. On the death of General Fraser’s younger half-brother, Colonel Archibald Campbell Fraser of Lovat (1736-1815), without legitimate surviving male issue, the Lovat estates were transferred, by entail, to Thomas Alexander Fraser of Strichen(1802-1875), a distant cousin who was descended from Thomas Fraser of Knockie & Strichen (1548-1612), second son of Alexander Fraser, 4th Lord Lovat (1527-1557). Knockie was sold about 1727 to Hugh Fraser of Balnain (1702-1735).^[13]

Under the chief, Simon (who had led the Frasers in the '45 as the Master of Lovat) a regiment of Frasers, the 78th Fraser Highlanders, numbering fourteen hundred were raised and fought the French and Indians in the colonies and in Canada, from 1757-1759. Interestingly, the 78th fought under General Wolfe, who had previously fought at the Battle of Culloden, against Simon and perhaps some of the 78th. It was one of the 78th, possibly Simon, possibly one of his men, whose familiarity with the French language saved the first wave of British troops at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which led to the capture of Quebec.^[13]

Fighting against American independence, Simon, by this time a General, raised twenty-three hundred men, the 71st Fraser Highlanders. He recruited two battalions, raised at Inverness, Stirling and Glasgow. Mostly men were not of the name, for the number of Frasers thirty years after Culloden and the end of the clan system, had been substantially reduced.^[13]

Many Frasers settled in the United States and Canada after the war against the French in Quebec. Many others later emigrated to those countries and to Australia and New Zealand (with a Fraser Prime Minister in both). Frasers in the U.S. have continued their proud military tradition, fighting on both sides of the American Civil War. Frasers from both sides of the Atlantic fought in the Great War, and the Second World War.^[15]

Frasers have always been known for their fighting spirit, and their skill in the arts of war. Frasers fought in many, many wars, from the defending of Scottish lands against invading Danes and Norse, to the Scottish Wars of Independence, to the Jacobite risings, both World Wars, and continue to serve today. Among the organized regiments, were an Independent Highland Company in 1745 that fought at the Battle of Culloden,^[13] and The 2nd Highland Battalion, formed in January of 1757.^[13]. The 62nd Regiment of Foot, formed 1757,^[13] was soon redesignated as the 78th Fraser Highlanders in 1758, and retired as a fighting unit in 1763, but the unit is still active as a fund raising organization under the authority of the Lord Lovat.^[13] The 71st Fraser Highlanders formed in October of 1775, consisted of two battalions raised at Inverness, Stirling and Glasgow for service in North America. They were disbanded in 1786.^[13] The Fraser Fencible Regiment, were raised by Col. the Hon. Archibald Campbell Fraser of Lovat, as a home guard in the event of an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Fraser Fencibles served in the Irish Rebellion of 1798.^[13] The Lovat Scouts, formed in January of 1900 by Simon Joseph Fraser, for service in the Second Boer War, saw extensive action during the Great War and the Second World War, and now consist of a platoon, Company C, of the 51st Highland Regiment.^[13]

Today the Clan Fraser is composed of thousands upon thousands of the descendants of those Frasers who ventured out into the world in the name of King and Country. Large Fraser populations exist in the United States and Canada, as well as smaller populations in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. In 1951, the Lord Lovat Simon Chrsitopher Joseph Fraser was able to muster some 7,000 Frasers to the family seat at Beaufort Castle,^[16] and in 1997, some 30-40,000 Frasers from 21 different countries came to Castle Fraser over a period of four days.^[17]

On May 1, 1984, by decree of the Court of the Lord Lyon, the 21st Lady Saltoun was made "Chief of the name and arms of the whole Clan Fraser". The late Lord Lovat, Simon Christopher Joseph Fraser, was reported to have not given any heed to the decision, dismissing the matter as being beneath him.^[18] Since this decree, there has been much confusion as to the Chiefship of the Clan Fraser.

Many are led to believe that this decree made the Lady Saltoun the chief of the Clan, however this is not true. One of the most important things to remember in this debate, is that the Lord Lyon did not grant the Chiefship of the Clan Fraser, simply a description of "Chief of the name and arms." The Lord Lyon does not have power over the Chiefship of a Highland Clan.^[19] What the decree did do, is reinforce the Lady Saltoun's claim to being the head of the senior branch of the wider Fraser family, and granted her the use of the plain and undifferenced Fraser arms (three strawberry flowers on a field of blue).^[15] Regardless, the chiefship still rests firmly in the hands of the current Lord Lovat, Simon Fraser.^[18]

Many Frasers have earned wide renown over the years. In military service, General Simon Fraser of Balnian, of Saratoga fame, General Simon Fraser of Lovat (who also fought in the war against the French, and commanded Fraser at Culloden), Admiral of the Fleet the Lord Fraser of Northcape Simon Christopher, the 17th Lord Lovat, served in the Scots Guards and was an outstanding British Commando leader in the Second World War, noted for his service during the D-Day landings of the Battle of Normandy. In the political realm, the Rt. Hon. Peter Fraser, Prime Minister of New Zealand 1940-1949, and the Rt. Hon. John Malcolm Fraser, Liberal Prime Minister of Australia 1975-1983. William Fraser, 1st Baron Strathalmond, Chairman B.P., Hugh Fraser III, grandson of the founder of the House of Fraser, and at one time owner of Harrods have made names for themselves in the business world. Dedication to the Kirk has been shown by the Very Reverend John Annand Fraser, MBE, TD, DD, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, Sir Charles Fraser, Pursebearer to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland and Lady Marion Anne Fraser, Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Simon Fraser, US-born Canadian explorer, mapped the Fraser River and Simon Fraser University is named in his honor. Ian Frazer, Australian immunologist, worked on the development of a cervical cancer vaccine.