Links to items on this
page: Links to other pages/sites Anderson's History
of the Frasers, 1826 These pages are jpg's in large zip files. A few pages
are on the site as webpages for you to sample. o Shuil Ad Dheidh, listen
& view this midi
Manuscript by great great aunt
Margaret Fraser, of my Fraser, Robertson & Gordon
ancestors (Transfered to PC file & annotated by Nicholas
Coleman, 1998., from copy made by my father, and later from original document) My dear children, I have told you that I cannot pretend to state about our ancestors with dates
etc. as clear as those your dear Uncle has given. My knowledge was acquired
in my early years, sitting at my dear & saintly grand Mother's feet. She
was Isabella O'Donovan & had been in Scotland during the troubles of '45.
It was delightful to hear her & I was never tired of listening to her. She
died, as your Uncle says, in 1817 when I was just 15, John Gordon, who inherited the Scotch property, had I understood, three sons(5,N.C.)
besides his daughter(2, K & Eliz,N.C.) my Great Grandmother. Their names
were Charles (?, N.C.), Louis & Alexander. They were all very young when
their father died. His death took place in Aberdeen under peculiar circumstances.
He had been very poorly for some time & he was advised to go to Aberdeen
for better advice & consultation. This he did, & the Doctor, finding
his nights were bad, ordered him a sleeping draught. It was too strong &
he never awoke. He was only 30 when he died & I have often heard the description
of the return of the family to their country seat, the house being all draped
in black. Of Great Grand Mamma's three brothers whom I have mentioned above, Charles(?,N.C.)
was the Laird. He joined the Prince in '45 & was killed. Louis became a
priest & remained in Paris to attend to the correspondence of the Prince.
He was standing with some gentlemen near one of the gates of the city when the
news of the defeat of Culloden arrived & that the Prince was leaving Scotland,
he wished the gentlemen good night, walked out of the city gate & was never
afterwards heard of. It was always thought that he had entered some religious
order & had not given his real name. The youngest brother Alexander was
weak-minded for, as we used to say, there was always a fool in the Ward House
family. Unable to see to anything, his cousins the Gordons of Beldonnie, who
were the next heirs, took charge of all, & I have often heard said that
he had not had fair play & that he had been made away with, but my Grandmother
would never allow that & always said that the Gordons of Beldonnie were
too good & too upright to have done such a thing. -- These are recollections
of what I heard in my early childhood & there may be some statements not
quite correct but of what follows I am quite sure & this concerns my Great
Grandmother. She was married very young being only 14. Her first husband was Colonel O'Donovan;
he was 40 when he married her. He had left Ireland on account of his religion
but had a large fortune which he took with him & he purchased property in
France & entered the French service. I believe he was in the King's Guards.
He came to Scotland on a visit to some of the adherents of the Stewarts. He went on to the Ward House in order, it was said, to induce the widow to
marry him, but instead of that he married her only daughter, a child of I4.
They went straight to London where she was made much of, I suppose on account
of her Grandfather, General Patrick Gordon. At the court of France she was still
better received, probably for the same cause. Colonel O'Donovan's estates were near Fontainebleau & they resided principally
there. She had a daughter before she was sixteen, who grew up a most beautiful
girl but rather weak-minded. She married a gentleman of the name of Ogstons.
My grandmother, the 2nd child, was born four months after her father's death,
her mother being then not quite 19. The family remained in France & when
Madam O' Donovan was 21, her brothers took over Kenneth McKenzie to be her 2nd
husband. I always understood that they had been perfectly happy. They had but
one son Alexander, afterwards on the Mission (unclear, N.C.). He changed his
name to Clinton & was for many years a priest at the Sardinian Chapel in
London. His father turned out very badly. When my Grandmother was about 13 Mr. McKenzie
persuaded his wife to sell all the property of her two daughters in France,
& to come over to England in order to be able to remain neuter in the affairs
of the Stewarts. At that time there was great excitement about them in Scotland. She sold all & came over leaving their son Alexander at Liege. On their
arrival in England he took a very nice place for them in the country. About
six months after they were comfortably settled he said one morning that he was
going out on business. The same evening his wife received a note from him saying
that she must look out for herself & her children for that she would never
see him again, nor did she. Her distress was extreme. He had all her own &
her girl's money with him. She had only her furniture, her bed & table linen
& her Plate with her. These were considerable, but she was in a strange
country, with foreign servants, & not one to whom she could speak except
to her own maid whom she had taken with her from Scotland. They made what money they could of some of their things & returned to Scotland,
where Madam McKenzie had many friends, but of course their fortune was gone.
Grandmamma was placed at school but as the '45 drew near they were perpetually
obliged to change from one place to another. Madam McKenzie parted with all
she had of jewels & plate etc. amongst her friends to raise money, &
Grandmamma has often told me that, visiting with friends, she has often found
their plate & linen etc. in use. They were in Edinburgh when it was taken & retaken 3 times in one day.
They were there also when the battle of Prestonpans was fought. They had frequently
to get up in the middle of the night to hear Mass either in a garret or in a
cellar. The Gordons have always been most religious, nor has catholicity ever
been entirely lost in our branch of that family. Grandmamma was not very sure
of her own age but she told me that she was again in Edinburgh in '49 &
that she was then about 22 years of age. But I must say something more about my Grandfather who was a most splendid
character as were all the Robertsons of Struan. He was a nephew of Struan, &
a son of his youngest brother & the circumstances of his birth made him
a very noted person in whom every one felt an interest. His father when quite
a young man, married one of the Menzies of Perthshire, & was in the 1st
year of his marriage in the '15. He joined the rising & was killed in a
skirmish with the English. They came upon his house & set fire to it. His
young wife was near her confinement, & the servants had only time to get
her out of a back window & carry her to the nearest cottage, where she gave
birth to a boy & died instantly. This child was my Grandfather. So from
the trying circumstances of his birth he was known as the young Philip. As soon
as the child could be moved he was taken to an uncle he had in Argyleshire,
& brought up there with his cousins, of whom I have heard most amusing stories. When he was still young they sent him ono the continent for fear of his joining
the then projected rising for the Stuarts, which he certainly would have done.
He entered the Scotch Dutch & was there all the time of the '45. Anxious
to know how affairs were going on he came over about the year l749, met Grand
mamma, married her, then returned to his regiment for2 years & then came
home. They lived mostly with Struan & thus were constantly with the Duke
of Athole.* My mother was educated with her brothers. She was clever, & was considered
quite a prodigy amongst the ladies in those days. She was very well instructed
in her religion & it used to amuse Grandpapa to make her discuss religious
topics with the parson who could not keep his ground with her & often could
not answer her at all. Grandpapa was still a protestant. When my 2 uncles were about 16 & 18 their
preceptor told my Grandfather that he could do no more for them, they surpassed
him in learning & they better be sent to a University. He went to Grandmama
& told her what the tutor had said, but added that in a University he feared
their morals would become corrupted. Grandmamma answered very gently that if
he wished them to be preserved from vice & at the same time to have their
education properly finished, he ought to send them to a Catholic College. Grandpapa
reflected for a minute & then said, I shall sacrifice all to have their
education completed. He sat down & wrote to Bishop Hay & to his brother-in-law
Uncle Clinton by the same post, asking them where they would advise him to send
his sons. They both answered to Valladolid & they were sent off immediately &
very soon after they were both received into the Church. They remained there
2 years, then Bishop Hay, who was most anxious for my Grandfather's conversion asked for
& obtained Father Maurus & sent him to his father's house as chaplain
& there he remained 3 years, much beloved by the people. His father never
went to the Protestant Church after his son's return home, neither did he go
to the Catholic place of worship, but he used to pace up & down the garden
while the family were in the Chapel. Uncle James thought he was preventing his father's conversion so he asked the
Bishop to remove him & to send another Priest, which he did. The Revd. Mr.
McRuthers (Carruthers, N.C.) came, he was quite young but was one of the cleverest
men in Scotland. Grandpapa was received into the Church, & lived 3 years
after, the edification of all who knew him. His death was very sudden but he
had been to Holy Communion in the morning. Some time before this my Father & Mother went to live with grandpapa. The
old people were lonely & wished to have their grand-children about them.
After my Grandfather's death my parents were not able to keep up his establishment,
so they came to Aberdeen to be near the Chapel & for their children's improvement.
Your Uncle John, your Aunt Isabella & I were born in Aberdeen. Now I think
I have said enough of my mother's family. I may some time hence tell you some
interesting anecdotes relating to different members of it, of their holy life
etc. etc. but for the present I will turn to the Frasers of whom I may tell
you en passant we are not so proud as of my mother's ancestors. But you will ask me who John Fraser my father was? He was the youngest of a
family of 10 sons & 3 daughters. His father William Fraser came to reside
at Strichen, but was not one of the Strichen Frasers, although related to them,
& it was remarked that although no one knew who he was, he spent a great
deal of his time in the woods with Mr. Fraser of Strichen whose name was William
like his own. But I suppose you will wish to know something more of your family. Well the Frasers came to France in the 9th century with one of the
Scotch Princes, The next time I remember them in history is in the time of Bruce,
when Simon Fraser, Prior of St.Andrews went out with 600 men, followers as you
may call them, dependent on the Monastery, to join Bruce. But the one we have
to do with is Finding that the Duke was displeased at the marriage, my Great Grandfather
treated his wife very badly (she was a weak-minded woman). This was known all
over the Highlands (see Sir Walter W Scott) & many of her friends tried
to see her, but he always found some excuse for her not appearing. At last a
great friend managed to get access to her & although closely watched she
found means of letting her friend know she was very unhappy. So, soon after,
she was helped to run off from him & being related to the Earl of Fife;
she sought his protection. The Earl did not dare to befriend her openly but
he got her concealed in the far North where it seemed impossible for any one
to discover her retreat. She was near her confinement when she escaped &
in a month or 2 she gave birth to twin boys, these were Simon & William
Fraser, the former was your Uncle William's grandfather, the latter was ours.
Lovat did not trouble about his wife & after she left him so Lady Lovat
brought up her sons very quietly. Those were wild times in Scotland, particularly
in the Highlands & the boys grew up as wild as the mountain deer. They were
15 years of age the very day that their father was beheaded in London. Lovat's 2 brothers were not long quiet after that. They knew of the 2 sons
& were determined to find them out. They scoured the Highlands & at
last discovered them or rather their mother, for the boys had escaped. They
treated her very badly & destroyed every paper she had that could prove
for herself or her sons. They left her in sad plight & she died soon after.
The boys thought of nothing after that except of hiding who they were for fear
of their uncles who certainly would have made away with them had they found
them. The Earl of Fife sent down Simon to the Earl of Kintore who gave him a
long lease of Brigellis (Bridge-ale-house, N.C.), where that family have been
ever since until your uncle William's death, when they gave it up having no
one to manage it. Mr. Fraser of Strichen asked my Grandfather to go to him which
he did, had a family of 13 children, lived & died there, but no one knew
who he was or where he came from, but every one remarked what friends the Laird
& he were. This might have given rise to the supposition that they were
only natural children. But more of this hereafter if you wish it, & also events of the family
& remarkable personnages in it, if you care for more information. Whilst much of the above is surprisingly accurate, please
remember that it records the memories of an eighty year old of the tales of
her great grandparents. The connection with Lord
Lovat is in no way proven. 1.The story goes that Primrose Campbell gave birth to twin
boys, William & Simon, about 1733. (before Archibald). (this
version will be hotly contested by many. ) I also have copies of: The Diary of General Patrick Gordon.1635/99 ,edited by Joseph Robertson,1859 other Fraser sites
& societies.
Various Strichen
sites: Memorial to General Patrick
Gordon: http://www.buchanweb.demon.co.uk/ardallie.htm Frasers of Lovat
List of other Fraser sites
List of Scottish sites
Some
genealogical sites
Family Manuscript of 18th
Century memoirs
Trip to Scotland, with
photos
My Fraser Family Tree, short text version.
HTML Family Trees
of Coleman, Fraser, Robertson, Gordon, Connolly, Kelly, Dunbar, Mathews,
Moloney, Poels, McLennan, etc. and now Russell
Early Photos of Frasers can be found here.
by
Thomas Faed
The
MS from which this has been copied was dictated by Alexander Fraser's sister
Margaret in 1873, a nun at Princethorpe School, to her Great niece, Ethel Fraser,
my Mother's eldest sister, who was then at school there. I have now typed &
printed it in my 83rd year in 1987. Unfortunately no more such papers
have survived.
Maurice Coleman, Lt.Col.
July 1987.
Little Bells, Selmeston, Polegate, East Sussex BN26 6UA.
But
there is some mistake about my Great Grandmother. s name. I thought it was Catharine,
but in this I may be mistaken.(correct, Katharine, N.C.) Grand Mamma always
spoke of them as the Gordons of Ward House, & my mother went there to be
married in front of a life-sized picture of her (Gr-, N.C.)Grandfather General
Patrick Gordon. But to return to them.
One
day that she was walking out with a Highland family (I think it was the Macdonals
of Borrodale to whom she was related by one of her Aunts or great Aunts) she
was met by Philip Robertson who was much struck by her appearance. He enquired
who she was & I believe proposed to her before the end of the day. He was
a Protestant but he promised her full liberty for her religion & that he
would leave the army. They were married in less than 6 weeks, he returned to
his regiment & she went to reside with his relations till he came back.
He
built himself a double house just as you cross the bridge at Strichen. Madam
McKenzie (as she was always called)joined them here, & as my Grandmother
was a Catholic & he had promised that his daughters should also be brought
up in that religion, he fitted up 2 rooms for a Chapel, which served for all
the Catholics in those parts for many many years. The Bishop gave him a Priest.
I think he was one who had been in the Gordon family before. He always lived
in the house which was quite like a Catholic one, still Grandpapa always went
to Church & took his sons with him. When they were still young he engaged
a young parson as their tutor, so there was a Priest & a parson every day
at table.
their
father wished them to travel. Uncle James who had decided on being a religious
visited different monastries & determined on entering that of St. Jacques
at Ratisbon, a Benedictine House. On their return home they both declared their
vocations. Uncle James asked permission to return to Ratisbon to become a priest,
& uncle Charles to enter the navy. Their father gave them leave but said
to a friend afterwards that although a Protestant; he had found it easier to
give leave to his eldest son to become a priest than to his 2nd to enter the
navy because the latter would receive pay from the king of England. (This was
the spirit that ran all through the Highlands). Uncle Charles was all the seven
years in the American war after which he went to the West Indies & died
there very rich, but as there was no one to go to see after his property it
was lost to the family. Uncle James in the mean time was ordained Priest. Madam
McKenzie was dead & old Mr.Duguid their chaplain had become blind, so my
Grandfather applied to the Bishop for another Priest.
my
great grandfather, the notorious Simon Fraser. You will find much about him
in Sir Walter Scott's "Tales of my Grandfather", at the part of the '45. Of
course he is very severe upon him. A very learned Priest, speaking to me one
day of Lovat said "It will only be known at the day of judgment what the real
character of that extraordinary man Simon Fraser was". The Frasers in London
will have it, it seems, that he was never married, & thus make my Grandfather
a natural child, but it was not so. Sir Walter Scott says, I think, that my
Grandfather, was married 3 times. At all events his last marriage with my Great
grandmother must have been according to the laws of Scotland, for she was a
near relative to the Duke of Argyle & he married her in the hopes of getting
his powerful protection against the English government if his double dealings
were discovered.
Now
I think I had better tell you the family tradition about Simon Fraser my Great
Grandfather. He was in Paris studying for the Church for my mother told me that
the Catholics said that he was gone too far in orders to turn back, he was either
deacon or sub-deacon when his uncle Lord Lovat died. Simon left Paris immediately
and returned to Paris (Scotland, N.C.) in the hopes of being able to marry his
own 1st cousin in order to be able to secure all the property, but he found her
married. He then tried to marry his own Aunt Lady Lovat, & there were many
strange stories about all this which I suppose I was too young to understand.
He left his religion & wished to espouse the cause of the Stuarts, but played
a double part throughout. He was the most powerful chieftain of the Highlands,
able to send 1300 of his followers into the field at the same time. He once sent
600 with his brother the Master of Lovat to the Prince, but no one trusted him
& I have heard that when he went to the meetings of the Chiefs they used to
say take care here is Simon. However we may hope there was a redeeming point in
his character. He gave his life for the Stuarts in the end & was beheaded
in London at the age of 72. I read in a history of those times that he had made
his escape with a Catholic Bishop & a Priest to an island in one of the Lakes
with the intention of making his recantation & of being received again into
the Church, but that the English soldiers having had notice of his flight surrounded
the Loch & carried him off to England. He was 6 months a prisoner in Lancashire
& from there he was taken to the Tower of London. It is said that he turned
to the people when on the scaffold & said "I die in the religion in which
I have always believed" but no one ever knew if he had had any spiritual assistance.
My dear mother always said that we were suffering for his crimes, & there
were many laid to his charge. Almighty God says "I shall visit the sins of the
Fathers on their children to the 3rd & 4th generation"
it is for us to do away with these chastisements by our fervour in the service
of God. I believe Simon Fraser's brothers were not better than himself. Their
2 nephews were always under the impression that if they found them they would
kill them,, & thus they continued you may say to hide & no one knew who
they were. The fact of my mother marrying a person whose extraction was unknown
infuriated my Grandfather Robertson & he never gave his consent to the marriage,
& did not even speak to my mother until 2 years after they were married.
(the above contains some small corrections from info in Diary of General Patrick
Gordon & its appendix. Also from OPR's, N.C.)
2.William had ten sons & three daughters, the youngest,
3.John had six boys & five girls. Including Jean the forbear
of the Russell branch, and Margaret b.1802 who dictated the above manuscript
in 1883 to Ethel and
4.Alexander Clinton Fraser 1790/1883, InspectorGeneral of Imports&Exports,
(whose photo is on my webpage) had four
boys & two girls.
5.George Alexander Fraser, had eight boys & three girls, including Maude my Grandmother 1875/1964, &
the above Ethel b.1863.
6.Maude had two sons,
7.Maurice (my Father) b1904 Balantyre Hall, Dundrum d 1992, & George k.1946
STOP NEWS: The descendents of the two lines from Jean and Alexander Fraser have happily been reunited at a recent meeting at Selmeston after an interval of over a century!
Secret Mission to the Danish Islands,1803, by James Robertson, edited by Alexander
Fraser, 1856.
Life of Fr Mathew (nephew of Earl of Thomastown),founder of Temperance Movement.
History of Frasers, very biased, (incl. letters of Simon Lord Lovat) by John
Anderson, 1825.
A Cavalier in Muscovy, biography of General Gordon, by Baroness von Buxhoeveden,1932
Clan Fraser of Canada
Clan Fraser of the UK
baronage.co
Bryn's site
Fraser of Strichen & later of Lovat - http://www.baronage.co.uk/bphtm-03/fraser05.html
Strichen
Main Page - http://www.buchanweb.demon.co.uk/strichen/strichen.htm
Strichen folksonghttp://music.lsds.com/lyrics/folk/m/mormond_braes
Buchan Community web http://www.buchanweb.demon.co.uk/index.htm