Lords Lovat (1458)
1st Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser, b.?, a.1458, d.c.1500
The name Fraser comes from Freseliere in Anjou, and the first Frasers in
Scotland were Normans who probably migrated from England during the reign of
William the Lion. Sir Gilbert Fraser of Oliver Castle (b.b.1200, d.c.1263) was
Sheriff of Traquair and Peebles. The hereditary sheriffdom passed through the
senior line of Frasers of Oliver Castle. Sir Simon Fraser of Oliver Castle was
prominent in the Wars of Independence, notably winning at the Battle of Roslin
in 1303. However he was captured after the Battle of Methven in 1306 and
executed with great cruelty. His lands in Aberdeenshire passed to Sir Alexander
Fraser of Touchfraser and Cowie, a descendant of a younger son of Sir Gilbert.
Sir Alexander fought at Bannockburn and afterwards married the Bruce’s widowed
sister Mary. In 1319 he was appointed Great Chamberlain of Scotland. He died
alongside his brothers Andrew Fraser, Simon Fraser and James Fraser at the
Battle of Halidon Hill. Simon had married Margaret, daughter of John, Mormaer
of Caithness, and received extensive lands in the north of Scotland, including
Lovat, west of Inverness, and this branch of the family took up the traditions,
and feuds, of the Highland clans. Hugh Fraser, 8th of Lovat, was
raised to the peerage in 1458 as 1st Lord Lovat.
2nd Lord Lovat, Thomas Fraser, b.?, a.c.1500, d.1524
Son of the 1st Lord and Violet (or Margaret) Lyon, daughter
of John Lyon, 3rd Lord Glamis (for whom see the earls of Kinghorne). He was Justiciary of the North during the
reign of James IV.
3rd Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser, b.1494,
a.1524, d.1544
Son of the 2nd Lord and Janet Gordon, daughter of Sir
Alexander Gordon of Abergeldie (who was a son of Alexander Gordon, 1st
Earl of Huntly). In 1540, the chiefs of many island
clans where imprisoned by the Government during the visit of James V to the
Hebrides. One of these was John of Moidart, chief of Clan Macdonald of
Clanranald. A dispute then arose over who should take over the chieftaincy,
with the Frasers backing Ranald Gallda, a son of the 5th chief,
whose mother was a Fraser. Ranald held on to power for a couple of years until
John reappeared, and, having no support, he took refuge with the Frasers of
Lovat. John gathered together the allied clans and made raids deep into the
mainland. The government was forced to act and a coalition of forces including
the Frasers, Grants and the Gordons of Huntly was sent to meet the raiders.
John refused to do battle with a superior army and retreated to his own
country. Not wishing to become exposed in enemy territory, the coalition pulled
back, with Huntly and the Grants heading for Badenoch and the Frasers to their
own lands further north. John now came around Loch Lochy from the north,
intercepting the Frasers, and on the shores of the loch the two sides battled
until last man standing. It is said that only five Frasers and eight Macdonalds
survived. The Battle of Kinlochlochy is also known as the Battle of the Shirts
as it was a very hot summer’s day and most of the fighters removed their armour
and mail, thereby having no protection against any sword or claymore, which
explains the scale of deaths.
4th Lord Lovat, Alexander Fraser, b.1527,
a.1544, d.1557
Son of the 3rd Lord and his second wife
Janet Ross, the first son and heir of the 3rd Lord having fallen
alongside his father at Kinlochlochy.
5th Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser, b.c.1544, a.1557, d.1576-1577
Son of the 4th Lord and Janet Campbell,
daughter of Sir John Campbell of Calder.
6th Lord Lovat, Simon Fraser, b.c.1568, a.1576-1577, d.1633
Son of the 5th Lord and Elizabeth Stewart,
daughter of John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl.
7th Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser, b.1591, a.1633, d.1646
Son of the 6th Lord and Katherine Mackenzie
(b.?, d.1593), daughter of Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, grandfather of the 1st
and 2nd earls of Seaforth).
8th Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser, b.1643, a.1646, d.1672
Grandson of the 7th Lord and Isabel Wemyss
(b.c.1598, d.1636), sister of John Wemyss, 1st Earl of Wemyss, and son of Hugh Fraser, Master of Lovat
(b.1624, d.1643) and Anna Leslie, daughter of Sir Alexander Leslie, 1st
Earl of Leven.
9th Lord Lovat, Hugh Fraser,
b.1666, a.1672, d.1696
Son of the 8th Lord and Anne
Mackenzie (b.c.1629, d.1670), daughter of Sir John Mackenzie, 1st
Baronet Mackenzie of Tarbat. He married Amelia Murray (b.1666, d.1743),
daughter of John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl.
His two sons predeceased him, leaving four daughter, the eldest of whom, Amelia
Fraser, assumed the title of Baroness Lovat and married Alexander Mackenzie of
Prestonhall (b.c.1683, d.1755), who assumed the surname of Fraser. Their son,
also Hugh Fraser (b.c.1703, d.1770) assumed the title of Lord Lovat on his
mother’s death. However in 1730 the Court of Session decreed that the lordship
should have passed to the heir-male. In compensation, and to prevent an appeal,
Hugh, now Mackenzie, was awarded handsome damages.
10th Lord Lovat, Thomas
Fraser, b.1631, a.1696, d.1699
Great-uncle of the 9th Lord,
being a younger brother of Hugh Fraser, Master of Lovat, the 8th
Lord’s father. Although he never assumed use of the title during his life, his
son succeeded in obtaining it by legal charter as indicated above.
11th Lord Lovat, Simon
Fraser, b.c.1667, a.1699, d.1747
Son of the 10th Lord and
Sibylla Macleod (b.?, d.1682), daughter of John Macleod of Macleod. He was
educated at King’s College in Aberdeen and then served in a regiment under Lord
John Murray, later Earl of Tullibardine and 2nd Marquess of Atholl. His older brother, Alexander Fraser had served
under Bonnie Dundee at the Battle of Killiecrankie and so was a known Jacobite.
He killed a piper in Beaully who had been playing a song that mentioned him as
deserving of the rope, and went on the run from the authorities, never to be
seen again, so Simon became the heir to his father. When the 9th
Lord Lovat died, Simon aimed to strengthen his claim by marrying the 9th
Lord’s daughter Amelia, who was only eleven years old at the time. Lord Murray,
however, who was Amelia’s uncle, did not like Simon and proposed as an
alternative the Master of Saltoun, son of the 11th Lord Saltoun, the head of the senior branch of the Fraser
clan. On hearing the Simon intended on kidnapping the girl, Saltoun and Murray
took the girl to safety. Simon then raised a body of his clan, took Saltoun
prisoner and marched on Downie Castle, the principal seat of Lord Saltoun.
Amelia had by now been spirited off to Atholl, but her mother, the dowager Lady
Lovat, was still present. Simon hastily married her against her will and raped
her. Murray raised troops to bring him to justice and he fled with his new wife
into Lovat country. He was eventually tracked down in 1698, tried and found
guilty of his crimes and sentenced to death, before managing to escape to
England. Through the intercession of the Duke of Argyll, he was pardoned by
King William and returned to Scotland to appear before the Court of Justiciary
to answer for his conduct. However, rather than risk it, he fled once more and
was declared outlaw. After the death of his father, and now calling himself
Lord Lovat, he acted as Ambassor on behalf of a number of Highland chiefs to the
exiled Jacobean Court in St Germain. Gaining enough of their confidence, he was
sent back to Scotland with a view to raising a Highland Jacobite regiment, but
finding little success, decided to cover his back by revealing the Jacobite
plans to the Duke of Queensberry, then the King’s High Commissioner in
Scotland, and implicating Queensberry’s rival, that same John Murray, now Duke
of Atholl. Queensberry made the mistake of continuing the intrigue rather than
act on the information received and sent Simon back to France to obtain more
information. By this time, his double-crossing had become known and he was
arrested in Paris and sent to the Bastille. He was kept imprisoned in France
for some ten years before escaping, but was arrested on his arrival in London.
Bailed and released, he headed back to Scotland at the 1715 uprising and used
his clan influence to recapture Inverness from the Jacobite garrison. This led to a royal pardon and later the
Court of Session decision in his favour in respect of the lordship in 1730. His
first wife dying in 1729, he married Primrose Campbell, a grand-daughter of
Archibald Campbell, 9th Earl of Argyll, in
the hope that he would receive the support of the Campbells in local politics.
This not forthcoming, he treated his new wife with shocking but typical
unpleasantness until such times as she could escape his side. Always a
Jacobite, he obtained a commission in the Black Watch that allowed him to train
his own clansmen and obtain arms and ammunition. This eventually came to the
attention of the Government and he lost his commission in 1737. In 1740 he
began to plan for the next Jacobite uprising, but when Prince Charles
eventually arrived, short of funds and soldiers, Fraser was reluctant to commit
himself, though having been promised a dukedom, and continued to maintain good
relations with the Government, promising to unite the clans in support, while
in reality trying to build his own army. His vacillation and reluctance to come
out in favour of Bonnie Prince Charlie undermined the Jacobite Uprising, since
his overt support would have united more of the clans, but he contented himself
by sending his own clansmen under his eldest son, Simon Fraser, Master of
Lovat. The Frasers took so long to mobilise that they never reached the main
body before it left for England, and only joined with it on its retreat. In
fact he only met Prince Charles after Culloden when they were both in flight.
Fraser, an old man, was arrested a few days later and sent to the Tower of
London. During his trial he used all of his powers of persuasion but by now his
deceit and duplicity had become common knowledge and nobody was fooled. Having
been found guilty and sentenced to death, he made light of his situation, even
on the way to the scaffold, and in facing his execution displayed a bravery
unfortunately lacking in his life. He is widely regarded as having been an
entirely unpleasant man, prone to self-indulgence, deceit, and with a fierce
temper. However he maintained authority over his clan by his cunning, flattery
and hospitality.
Simon Fraser (b.1726, d.1782), son of
the 11th Lord and Sibylla Macleod, continued as Chief of Clan Fraser
though he could not succeed to the forfeited lordship. He led the Frasers at
Culloden and his life was spared by the young James Wolfe. A well-educated man,
he was encouraged to join the British Army and raised a battalion of
Highlanders at Wolfe’s suggestion. In 1757 he was commissioned as
Lieutenant-Colonel of the 2nd Battalion of the Highland Regiment. At
this time, many 2nd battalions were converted into new regiments and
in 1758 it became the 78th Foot Regiment, the Fraser Highlanders.
The new regiment travelled to America and fought at the Battle of Louisbourg
that year, and was later at the capture of Montreal in 1760 and St John’s in
1761. At the end of the Seven Years War, the regiment was disbanded and most of
the soldiers stayed in Canada. It was reformed in 1775 as the 71st
Foot Regiment and took part in the American War of Independence before being
disbanded again in 1786, Fraser retiring as a Lieutenant-General. In 1774 he
was granted some of the forfeited Lovat estates near Beauly, but having no
children, these estates passed to the new clan chief, his half-brother
Archibald Campbell Fraser (b.1736, d.1815). Archibald also served in the
British Army and in 1794 raised the 15th Fencible Regiment, which
served during the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and was disbanded in 1808. All of his
five sons died before him and this line became extinct.
12th Lord Lovat, Thomas
Alexander Fraser, b.1802, a.1854, d.1875
The chieftaincy of the clan devolved to
Thomas Alexander Fraser of Strichen, a descendant of the 5th Lord’s
younger brother Thomas Fraser (b.c.1545, d.1612). In 1837 he was created 1st
Baron Lovat of Lovat, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and in 1854 he
obtained a reversal of attainder to become 12th Lord Lovat, although
the attainder still attaches to the 11th Lord and his sons. He served as Lord-Lieutenant of
Inverness-shire from 1853 to 1873 and was invested as a Knight of the Thistle
in 1865.
13th Lord Lovat, Simon
Fraser, b.1828, a.1875, d.1887
Son of the 12th Lord and
Charlotte Georgina Stafford-Jerningham (b.1800, d.1876), daughter of George
William Stafford-Jerningham, 2nd Baron Stafford. He was made a
Knight of the Thistle in 1865 and was Lord-Lieutenant of Inverness-shire from
1873 to 1887.
14th Lord Lovat, Simon Joseph
Fraser, b.1871, a.1887, d.1933
Son of the 13th Lord and
Alice Mary Weld-Blundell. He joined the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders and
reached the rank of Lieutenant in 1890 before transferring to the 1st
Life Guards in 1894. In 1897 he left the regulars and joined the volunteer
battalion of the Cameronians. In 1899 he raised the Lovat Scouts and served with
them in South Africa, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order. He was
made a Companion of the Bath in 1902. During World War I he commanded the
Highland Mounted Brigade and reached the rank of Brigadier-General in 1914. In
1919 he was appointed as Army Director of Forestry and continued in this vein
as Chairman of the Forestry Commission from 1919 to 1927. He was made a Knight
of the Thistle in 1915, a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St
George in 1919, and a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1932.
15th Lord Lovat, Simon
Christopher Joseph Fraser, b.1911, a.1933, d.1995
Son of the 14th Lord and
Laura Lister (b.1892, d.1965), daughter of Thomas Lister, 4th Baron Ribblesdale.
Born at Beaufort Castle, he attended Oxford University where he joined the
University’s Cavalry Squadron. He joined the Lovat Scouts in 1930 and the
following year transferred to Scots Guards. Having succeeded his father in
1933, he resigned his commission in 1937 and joined the supplementary reserve
of officers. At the start of the Second World War he joined the Lovat Scouts as
a Captain before transferring to 4 Commando, where he took part in several
successful raids. In 1942 he was awarded the Military Cross and was appointed
commanding officer of 4 Commando, leading them in the abortive raid on Dieppe,
and for which he received the Distinguished Service Order. In 1944 he reached
the rank of Brigadier-General and was put in charge of the 1st Special
Service Brigade that was part of the force that landed at Sword Beach during
D-Day, and led his troops inland to meet elements of the 6th
Airborne Division at Pegasus Bridge. Days later he was seriously injured during
an artillery bombardment that killed several senior officers. Though he made a
full recovery, he was unable to return to action. In 1945 he turned down an
offer from Winston Churchill to become a Captain in the Honourable Corps of
Gentlemen-at-Arms and instead joined the Government in the Foreign Office and
then as Minister for Economic Welfare, until resigned after Churchill’s
election defeat, when he was made a Commander of the Most Venerable Order of
the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. He officially retired from the army in
1962 having reached the honorary rank of Brigadier-General. In later life he
was active in the House of Lords and in Inverness County Council and was
interested in promoting the game of shinty, the local shinty club bearing his
name. In his last years he had to face the deaths of two of his sons and the
financial straits of inheritance tax forced him to sell Beaufort Castle.
16th Lord Lovat, Simon
Fraser, b.1977, a.1995
Grandson of the 15th Lord and
Rosamond Broughton, daughter of Sir Henry John Delves Broughton, 11th
Baronet Broughton of Broughton in the County of Stafford, and son of Simon
Augustine Fraser, Master of Lovat (b.1939, d.1994) and Virginia Grose. Educated
at Harrow and the University of Edinburgh, he became a fund manager in Geneva.
As well as being 16th Lord Lovat, he is also 5th Baron
Lovat and 25th MacSimidh (Gaelic for son of Simon), the traditional
name for the Chief of Clan Fraser.
The courtesy title for the heir is
Master of Lovat.
(Last updated: 16/06/2010)