Lords Saltoun of Abernethy (1445)
1st Lord Saltoun, Lawrence Abernethy, b.1400, a.1445, d.1460
Abernethy is an area of the lower Strathearn valley in Perthshire,
possessed during the reign of William I by one Orme, son of Hugh, a younger
brother of Duncan, 4th Earl of Fife, and his descendants took the
name for their own. The lands of Saltoun came into the possession of his
grandson William Abernethy (b.?, d.b.1296) and the 8th laird in
direct descent was raised to the peerage as 1st Lord Saltoun of
Abernethy.
2nd Lord Saltoun, William Abernethy, b.?, a.1460, d.1488
Son of the 1st Lord and Margaret, surname unknown. He was
Sheriff of Banffshire in 1458 and was made a Privy Counsellor somewhere around
1482. He may have died at the Battle of Sauchieburn.
3rd Lord Saltoun, James Abernethy, b.?, a.1488, d.1505
Younger brother of the 2nd Lord.
4th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Abernethy, b.?, a.1505, d.1527
Son of the 3rd Lord. He fought at Flodden and was made a
Privy Counsellor in 1514.
5th Lord Saltoun, William Abernethy, b.?, a.1527, d.1543
Son of the 4th Lord and an unknown daughter of James Stewart,
1st Earl of Buchan. He was a member of the
anti-English, pro-French party in Parliament.
6th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Abernethy, b.1537, a.1543, d.1587
Son of the 5th Lord and Lady Elizabeth Hay (b.?, d.1574),
daughter of either William Hay, 4th Earl of Erroll
or John Hay, 2nd Lord Hay of Yester (for whom see the earls of Tweeddale), the former being the more likely. He was
made a Privy Counsellor sometime before 1553 and was Lord of the Articles in
1560. He was a supporter of the young James against his mother, Mary, Queen of
Scots, and accompanied him to England in 1560.
7th Lord Saltoun, George Abernethy, b.1555, a.1587, d.1590
Son of the 6th Lord and Lady Alison Keith (b.?, d.1567),
daughter of William Keith, 4th Earl Marischal
(according to the numbering of these earls in these pages). He was made a Privy
Counsellor sometime before 1588 but was involved in the rebellion of the
Catholic Lords Huntly and Erroll. He was later made Sheriff of Banffshire.
8th Lord Saltoun, John Abernethy, b.1578, a.1590, d.1612
Son of the 7th Lord and Lady Margaret Stewart (b.?, d.1618),
daughter of John Stewart, 4th Earl of Atholl.
He was made a Privy Counsellor sometime before 1600. He had to sell the estates
of Rothiemay to fund his lifestyle.
9th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Abernethy, b.1611, a.1612, d.1668
Son of the 8th Lord and his third wife Anne Stewart, daughter
of Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre.
10th Lord (Lady) Saltoun, Margaret Abernethy, b.1609, a.1668,
d.1669
Older sister of the 9th Lord. For many years she was excluded
from the numbering as she survived her brother by only a few weeks and died
unmarried. She has now been recognised as the 10th holder de jure
(by law) suo jure (in her own right).
11th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Fraser, b.1604, a.1669, d.1693
The succession now passed via the 8th Lord’s sister, also
Margaret Abernethy (b.?, d.b.1625). She married Alexander Fraser of Philorth
(b.c.1570, d.c.1636). The Frasers of Philorth were the senior branch of the
great lowland family of Fraser (see the Lovat page for
more detail), and this Alexander Fraser was 9th Laird of Philorth. His
grandfather had developed the harbour as Fraserburgh and he added to this by
contructing Fraserburgh Castle, though the costs forced him to sell some of his
lands to other Frasers, such as the Lovats, the Frasers of Strichen, the
Frasers of Durris. Their son, also Alexander Fraser, succeeded as 11th
Lord Saltoun. He signed the Covenant in 1638 and served under Montrose. As a
Royalist, he fought at the Battle of Worcester and was seriously injured, and
would have died but for the intervention of his manservant James Cardno, who
took him from the field and nursed him back to health. He married three times,
each to the daughter of an earl.
12th Lord Saltoun, William Fraser, b.1654, a.1693, d.1715
Grandson of the 11th Lord and his second wife Elizabeth
Seton, and son of Alexander Fraser, Master of Saltoun (b.1630, d.1682) and Anne
Kerr (b.1631, d.1658), daughter of William Kerr, 3rd Earl of Lothian. He was involved in the following interesting tale.
Simon Fraser, the future 11th Lord Lovat, decided to strengthen his
claim to the lordship of Lovat by marrying the 9th Lord Lovat’s
daughter Amelia Fraser, even though the Master of Saltoun was a more preferable
choice. When Lord Saltoun helped rescue the girl, Simon Fraser raised some of
his clan and took Saltoun prisoner, attacking Downie Castle, where the dowager
Lady Lovat was staying, and marrying her instead, against her will. A more
detailed version of the story may be found on the Lovat
page. Lord Saltoun was a supporter of the Darien scheme and opposed the Act of
Union. He was briefly arrested during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1708 but
released because of his ill-health. He was an Episcopalian and objected to
Protestant attempts to take over the High Church in Fraserburgh.
13th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Fraser, b.1684, a.1715, d.1748
Son of the 12th Lord and Margaret Sharp (b.?, d.1734),
daughter of James Sharp, Archbishop of St Andrews. He refused to follow his
father by siding with the Jacobites in 1715 and supported the Government
instead.
14th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Fraser, b.1710, a.1748, d.1751
Son of the 13th Lord and Lady Mary Gordon (b.1682, d.1753),
daughter of George Gordon, 1st Earl of Aberdeen.
He died unmarried and took little part in public affairs, though he held the
post of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Scotland from 1741 to 1742.
15th Lord Saltoun, George Fraser, b.1720, a.1751, d.1781
Younger brother of the 14th Lord. He also kept a very low
profile.
16th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Fraser, b.1758, a.1781, d.1793
Son of the 15th Lord and Eleanor Gordon (b.?, d.1800),
daughter of the noted Jacobite John Gordon of Kinellar and his wife Henrietta
Fraser, a daughter of the 11th Lord Saltoun. He attended Lincoln’s
Inn in 1779 and became an Advocate the following year.
17th Lord Saltoun, Alexander George Fraser, b.1785, a.1793,
d.1853
Son of the 16th Lord and Marjory Fraser (b.1754, d.1851),
daughter of Simon Fraser of Ness Castle (who was a director in the East India
Company). The 17th Lord as educated at Eton and joined the 35th
Foot Regiment in 1802 before moving to the Black Watch, becoming a Captain in
1804. He then joined the First Guards Regiment (now known as the Grenadier
Guards). He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1813. He spent most of his
time in the Guards fighting in the Napoleonic Wars. He commanded the Light
Companies of the 2nd & 3rd Battalions of the Regiment
at the Battle of Waterloo and was with the Army when it reached Paris. He was
promoted to Colonel in 1825 and commanded the 1st Battalion until
1837, when he was promoted to Major-General. Between campaigns he returned home
to Philorth but was called upon in 1841 to head for China, where he led a brigade,
and was left in charge of the occupation forces until 1844. In 1846 he reached
the rank of Lieutenant-General. He was also a Representative Peer from 1811
until his death and awarded various honours, including being made a Knight Grand
Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Order in 1837, a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1842
and a Knight of the Thistle in 1852. He was married young but his wife died in
1826 and he never remarried.
18th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Fraser, b.1820, a.1853, d.1886
Nephew of the 17th Lord, being son of that man’s younger
brother William Fraser (b.1791, d.1845) and Elizabeth Graham Grant (b.?,
d.1853), daughter of David Macdowall Grant of Arndilly. He joined the 96th
Foot Regiment as an Ensign in 1837 and was promoted to Captain in the 28th
Foot Regiment in 1845. He reached the rank of Major in 1852 and from 1854 to
1855 was Lieutenant-Colonel in the Aberdeenshire Militia. He was inducted as a
Brigadier-General into the Royal Company of Archers. He was also a
Representative Peer from 1859 to 1886.
19th Lord Saltoun, Alexander William Frederick Fraser,
b.1851, a.1886, d.1933
Son of the 18th Lord and Charlotte Evans (b.?, d.1890). He
joined the Army in 1869 and in 1880 was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Grenadier
Guards. He then served as a Major in the 3rd Battalion, Gordon
Highlanders from 1890 to 1899. He was a Representative Peer from 1890 to 1933
and was inducted as a Captain in the Royal Company of Archers. In 1917 he was
made an Honorary Brigadier-General and invested as a Companion of the Order of
St Michael and St George. He was also Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Scotland from 1897 to 1900.
20th Lord Saltoun, Alexander Arthur Fraser, b.1886, a.1933,
d.1979
Son of the 19th Lord and Mary Helena Grattan-Bellew (b.?,
d.1940), daughter of Thomas Arthur Bellew, 2nd Baronet Bellew of Mount
Bellew. He fought in the First World War as Captain and Honorary Major of the 3rd
Battalion, Gordon Highlanders. He was a Representative Peer from 1935 to 1963
(when Scottish peers obtained the right to sit in the House of Lords without
requiring election) and was made a member of the Royal Company of Archers.
21st Lord (lady) Saltoun, Flora Marjory Fraser, b.1930,
a.1979
Daughter of the 20th Lord and Dorothy Geraldine Welby (b.?,
d.1985), daughter of Sir Charles Glynne Earle Welby, 5th Baronet Welby
of Denton Manor. Her elder brother Alexander Simon Fraser (b.1921, d.1944)
having been killed in action during the Second World War, she succeeded to the
title. She retained her seat in the House of Lords following the House of Lords
Act 1999 by becoming one of only 90 elected hereditary peers. She married Captain
Alexander Arthur Alphonso David Maule Ramsay (b.1919, d.2000), who was a
grandson of John William Ramsay, 13th Earl of Dalhousie
on his father’s side and a grandson of Prince Arthur William Patrick Albert, 1st
Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (third son of Queen Victoria) on his mother’s
side, although she kept her maiden name. She is regarded as a member of the
Royal family by marriage. She has three daughters, the eldest, Katharine,
having kept her maiden name of Fraser after her marriage, having a son Alexander
(b.1990), who has also retained the Fraser surname. Lady Saltoun is Chief of
Clan Fraser and Secretary of the Association of Scottish Peers.
The courtesy title for the heir is Master of Saltoun.
(Last updated: 27/08/2010)