Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 22 on 10/08/2005.

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A complex clan (Clan Fraser)

In this issue James Irvine Robertson looks at Clan Fraser

There is a senior and a secondary branch of Clan Fraser, whose chief is Lady Saltoun, with the 18th Lord Lovat chief of the cadet clan, the Frasers of Lovat. The progenitor of both families, a de Frisselle, originated in France, and was one of those knights who came to England to make themselves fortunes after the Norman Conquest. The arms of the Frasers contain strawberry leaves, a pun on the name from fraise in French.

Sir Simon Fraser is recorded with lands in southern Scotland by 1160. His Christian name has been carried by so many Frasers since that it leads to considerable genealogical confusion.

Another Sir Simon was a principal supporter of Sir William Wallace and Robert the Bruce in the Scottish wars of independence, beating three divisions of the English army in the same day at Roslin in 1302. He was caught by the English in 1306 and executed with exquisite cruelty.

His cousin Sir Simon fought with Bruce at the battle of Bannockburn and was killed at the battle of Halidon Hill in 1333. His brother, Sir Alexander, also fought at Bannockburn and had time to marry Robert Bruce’s widowed sister, Lady Mary, who had been imprisoned in a cage by Edward I of England. He sired both the senior line and the Lovat Frasers before the English got him too at the battle of Dupplin Moor in 1332.

The senior line, the Frasers of Philorth, settled in Aberdeenshire and became powerful local land owners, founding the town of Fraserburgh in 1592. They began their own university there .....

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By James Irvine Robertson

Section : Scottish Clans

Page number : 60