Back in the day: The long lasting legacy of Clan Fraser

Thus, as I showed last week, the Frasers are a hybrid clan, consisting of Clan Fraser of Philorth whose chief is Flora Fraser, 21st Lady Saltoun, and Highland Clan Fraser of Lovat, whose chief is Simon Fraser, the 18th Lord Lovat and 25th MacShimidh. Both clans are recognised as separate and distinct entities while still all being Frasers.

Again I repeat my indebtedness to the excellent websites of both the Clan Fraser Society, clanfraser.org and Lady Saltoun herself, fraserchief.co.uk for some of the information contained in this column but, as always, I carried out my own research and therefore responsibility for any mistakes is mine alone. I would recommend anyone wishing to learn more about the extraordinary Frasers to check those two websites.

Last week I showed how both clans have a common ancestry, and how the name of Fraser was hugely important in the era when Scotland was asserting itself as a nation against English domination – with one Fraser in particular co-leading the Scots to victory in the important Battle of Roslin in 1303. Sir Simon Fraser went on to fight alongside Robert the Bruce, and is said to have saved his life three times at the Battle of Methven in 1306, which explains the three crowns on the Fraser of Lovat coat of arms. Such valour cost Sir Simon his life as he was hung, drawn and quartered on the orders of King Edward Longshanks in 1306.

Lieutenant-Colonel Simon Fraser, the 15th Lord Lovat (1911 - 1995), of the No. 4 Commando unit of the British Army (Photo by M. McNeill/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Both Fraser clans are proud to claim this Sir Simon Fraser the Patriot as an ancestor, and rightly so, and while the Frasers of Philorth are descended from Simon’s relative Sir Alexander Fraser of Touchfraser and Cowie who fought for the Bruce at Bannockburn in 1314, and was Bruce’s Lord Chamberlain from 1319, the Frasers of Lovat descend from Simon the Patriot’s other relative, Sir Simon Fraser, the brother of Sir Alexander.
We can say for definite that he founded the Fraser of Lovat line as through his marriage to Margaret, a member of the powerful family of the Earl of Orkney and Caithness, he acquired the Lovat lands around the River Beauly in the ancient county of Inverness, which is why he is acknowledged as the first chief of the Lovat Frasers. The first clan chief fought at Bannockburn, having previously been mentioned in a 1308 charter by King Robert the Bruce, along with his brother Alexander, and he was made Sheriff of Kincardine by the King in 1317. 

Sir Simon maintained his loyalty to the Bruces, especially King David II, son of Robert the Bruce, which cost him his life as he was killed fighting the English at the Battle of Halidon Hill in 1333, along with his two younger brothers, James and Andrew Fraser.

According to the family tree on the clanfraser.org website, the next clan chief, Alexander, was probably the first to bear the Gaelic name MacShimidh, rendered in English as MacShimi, meaning son of Simon, a name which recurs throughout the clan’s history.

At some point, the Lairds of Lovat also acquired the title of Guardians of Aird, the area to the west of Inverness because a document dating from 1367 states that clan chief Hugh Fraser is the Dominus de Loveth et portioarius de le Ard – the Lord of Lovat and guardian of the Aird.

Shimi Fraser, the 17th Lord Lovat, who we will meet later, has given one of the best descriptions I have ever read about how Highland clans came into being and expanded in those early days of clanship.

He wrote: “The Lovat chiefs never made the mistake of acquiring their lands as conquerors. Prudent marriages and diplomacy established the Frasers as proprietors south and west of the Beauly Firth, in Strathfarrar, in part of Strathglass, in Stratherrick, to the east of Loch Ness, and even for a time, though with disappointing results, in part of Glenelg, on the western coast.

‘Glenelg apparently excepted, in all these other districts the numerous younger children and other relatives of MacShimi married with alacrity and content into the families of the original inhabitants of the land. 
The happy consequence was that during the 15th century there emerged a swarm of warrior-framers, enjoying somewhat better soil and climate than some of their neighbours; Gaelic in speech, custom and thought, quick to defend their homes, and all proud to consider themselves Frasers and MacShimi’s men. The Clan Fraser of Lovat had been born.”
All that intermarriage worked for the Frasers as cadet branches were founded all over the north of Scotland, and properties like Lovat Castle, originally Beauly Castle, were acquired by marriage to a Bissett, the family that built it.

The main Fraser family were already players on the national stage, as Hugh Fraser (1377-1440) was reckoned noble enough to be a hostage for the ransom of King James I, when he returned from England in 1424.
There were of course clan battles over lands and other issues, and the Frasers of Lovat were no strangers to these. One of the biggest of these was the Battle of Mamsha in 1429, when the might of Clan Donald, under Alexander, the Lord of the Isles, was routed by Clan Fraser in what appears to have been revenge on the invaders, after they had besieged Inverness Castle and razed the town. It would be many years before any other clan tried to invade the Aird.

At some point in the 1450s or 60s, the Frasers were ennobled with the clan chief Hugh Fraser becoming the 1st Lord Lovat. He supported the feckless King James III until the final rebellion against him saw the king murdered after the Battle of Sauchieburn in 1488. The new king, James IV, also enjoyed Fraser support as shown by the fact that Hugh Fraser of Lovat died alongside the king at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. His brother Thomas, the 2nd Lord Lovat, had acquired Castle Dounie, or Downie, by 1511 and it became Beaufort Castle where Thomas died in 1524.

It was in one of the aforementioned clan battles that Hugh Fraser, 3rd Lord Lovat, and his elder son and heir were killed in 1544. The Battle of Blar-na-Léine, or the Battle of the Shirts, was one of the most ferocious of all clan battles in which 500 men of Clan Macdonald of Clanranald fought 300 Frasers. Only five Frasers and eight Macdonalds survived. Lovat and his son were buried at Beauly Priory, traditional burial place of the clan chiefs.
Hugh, the 5th Lord Lovat, called out Clan Fraser in support of Mary, Queen of Scots and laid siege to Inverness Castle where the Gordons were opposing her. The historian George Buchanan recorded that the Frasers and Munros were the bravest of the Queen’s troops.

The Frasers of Lovat continued to be principal chiefs in the area of Inverness-shire and served as sheriffs, surviving all the religious and political upheavals of the 16th and 17th centuries until the arrival of a man who has come down through history as the Old Fox, Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat.

As it involves both clans, I’ll let Lady Saltoun tell the story of his outrageous early behaviour: “Hugh Fraser, 9th Lord Lovat (1666-1696), who had four daughters but no son, willed his estates to his great-uncle, Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, instead of to his eldest daughter, Amelia. Thomas Fraser’s second son Simon, later 11th Lord Lovat (1668-1747) had planned to marry the heiress, Amelia.

“When the plan failed, Simon, with his Fraser clansmen, besieged Castle Dounie, took possession of the lands, and forcibly married Amelia’s mother, the dowager Lady Lovat. For this lawless behaviour, Simon and his accomplices were tried in 1698 by the Court of Judiciary on a charge of High Treason, and other offences and condemned to death.

READ MORE: Scotland back in the day: The story behind Clan Fraser ... of the Lowland side

“To make matters worse, in 1702, Amelia married Alexander Mackenzie of Prestonhall, who took the name Fraser of Fraserdale, and the Court decided in favour of her claim to the rights and dignities of her father’s house. These claims were challenged by Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, who eventually assumed the title of 10th Lord Lovat, in succession to his great-nephew.”

I told the story of the Old Fox back in 2018 and that can be viewed online. Suffice to say he was a rat who re-ratted and having supported the Hanoverians in the 1715 Jacobite Rising – he was given back his estates as a reward – he sided with the Jacobites in the ’45 which cost him his burned castle and his life, as he was the last man in Britain to be beheaded for treason.

READ MORE: The mightiest Scottish clans: How Douglas saw both tragedy and triumph

His son was Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, 19th chief of Clan Fraser. Though he had fought for the Stuart cause and the Government in London had executed his father, Fraser was pardoned and in return founded his own eponymous regiment in 1757,  which joined the British Army as the 78th Fraser Highlanders. They fought with distinction in the Seven Years War, playing a vital part in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham and the capture of Quebec in 1759, where they served under General Wolfe, who was killed during the battle – he was reportedly carried from the field by grieving Frasers.

Simon Fraser founded a second Fraser regiment, becoming a general in the British Army and having the Lovat estates – but not the Lordship – restored to him in 1774. His brother Archibald became an MP and led the campaign for the repeal of the tartan-banning Dress Act in 1782 before becoming quite eccentric – he used to pretend to be a turkey and sit on eggs. Neither he nor Simon left any sons, and with the title having been attainted after the ‘45, it was only in the first half of the 19th century that the peerage was restored to a distant relative, Thomas Fraser, the Laird of Strichen.

The chiefs of Clan Fraser continued to be leading soldiers in particular, with Simon Fraser, the 16th Lord Lovat, founding the famous Lovat Scouts during the Boer War. He would later have a political career, as did his son Sir Hugh Fraser, who would serve in Parliament for an English constituency for 40 years.

Now we come to the best-known Lord Lovat of recent times, a true warrior. I have written about MacShimi, the 17th Lord Lovat, before and stated: “He is best known now for his remarkable courage and leadership on D-Day, June 6, 1944, when he led his commandos inland from Sword Beach to secure the captured Pegasus Bridge, which was such a vital installation for the Allies on that most crucial of all days during the war. And yes, Lovat did have his personal piper Bill Millin beside him.

“Lovat was tall, dashing and handsome, and Hollywood got it right when one of the best-looking actors on the screen, Peter Lawford, played Lovat in The Longest Day, dressed exactly as the 25th chief of Clan Fraser had been on that day, with a white jumper and a beret.”

Lovat was also badly wounded not much later in the war, but recovered to lead the clan again.

The Frasers have clan societies all over the globe, and the current clan chief, the 18th Lord Lovat, does a superb job in promoting his clan, helped by the fact that Outlander author Diana Gabaldon named her hero Jamie Fraser, which probably makes this fictional character the most famous Fraser of the day.