Chapter IX (1)

Stewart--Stewart of Lorn--Appin--Balquhidder--“Donald of the
hammer”--Stewarts of Athole--Grandtully--Balcaskie--Drumin
--Ardvoirlich--Steuart of Dalguise--Ballechin--Fraser--Fraser
of Philorth--Lovat--Ballyfurth and Ford--Beaufort--Castle
Fraser--American Frasers--Menzies--Castle Menzies--Pitfoddels
--Chisholm--Cromlix or Cromleck--Murray--Athole--Tullibardine
--Ochtertyre--Drummond--Bellyclone--Græme or Graham--Kincardine
--Earl of Montrose--Gordon--Earl of Huntly--Duke of Gordon--“The
Cock of the North”--Cumming--Ogilvy--Ferguson.

It now only remains for us to notice shortly several of those families, which, though generally admitted not to be of Celtic origin, yet have a claim, for various important reasons, to be classed among the Highland clans. Most of them have been so long established in the Highlands, they have risen to such power and played such an important part in Highland history, their followers are so numerous and so essentially Gaelic in their blood and manners, that any notice of the Highland clans would be incomplete without an account of these. We refer to the names of Stewart, Fraser, Menzies, Chisholm, and several others. To the uninitiated the three last have as genuine a Gaelic ring about them as any patronymic rejoicing in the unmistakable prefix “Mac.”

STEWART.

It is not our intention here by any means to enter into the general history of the Stewarts--which would be quite beyond our province, even if we had space--but simply to give a short account of those branches of the family which were located in the Highlands, and to a certain extent were regarded as Highland clans. With regard to the origin of the Stewarts generally, we shall content ourselves with making use of Mr Fraser’s excellent summary in the introduction to his “_Red Book of Grandtully_.”

Walter, the son of Alan or Fitz-Alan, the founder of the royal family of the Stewarts, being the first of that family who established himself in Scotland, came from Shropshire, in England. Walter’s elder brother, William, was progenitor of the family of Fitz-Alan, Earls of Arundel. Their father, a Norman, married, soon after the Norman Conquest, the daughter of Warine, sheriff of Shropshire. He acquired the manor of Ostvestrie or Oswestry in Shropshire, on the Welsh border. On the death of Henry I. of England, in 1135, Walter and William strenuously supported the claims of the Empress Maud, thus raising themselves high in the favour of her uncle, David I., king of the Scots. When that king, in 1141, was obliged to retire to Scotland, Walter probably then accompanied him, encouraged, on the part of the Scottish monarch, by the most liberal promises, which were faithfully fulfilled; whilst his brother William remained in England, and was rewarded by Maud’s son, Henry II. of England. From the munificence of King David I. Walter obtained large grants of land in Renfrewshire and in other places, together with the hereditary office _Senescallus Scociæ_, lord high-steward of Scotland, an office from which his grandson, Walter, took the name of Stewart, which the family ever afterwards retained. King Malcolm IV., continuing, after the example of his grandfather, King David, to extend the royal favour towards this English emigrant, confirmed and ratified to Walter and his heirs the hereditary office of high steward of Scotland, and the numerous lands which King David I. had granted. In the annals of the period, Walter is celebrated as the founder, probably about 1163, of the monastery of Paisley, in the barony of Renfrew. At or after the time of his establishing himself in Scotland, Walter was followed to that kingdom by many English families from Shropshire, who, settling in Renfrewshire, obtained lands there as vassals of the Stewarts. Walter married Eschina de Londonia, Lady of Moll, in Roxburghshire, by whom he had a son, Alan; and dying in 1177, he was succeeded in his estates and office as hereditary steward of Scotland by that son.

Having thus pointed out the true origin of the family of the Stewarts, our subject does not require us to trace the subsequent history of the main line.

Walter’s son and successor, Alan, died in 1204, leaving a son, Walter, who was appointed by Alexander II. justiciary of Scotland, in addition to his hereditary office of high-steward. He died in 1246, leaving four sons and three daughters. Walter, the third son, was Earl of Menteith. The eldest son, Alexander, married Jean, daughter and heiress of James, lord of Bute, and, in her right, he seized both the Isle of Bute and that of Arran.

Alexander had two sons--James, his successor, and John, known as Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, who fell at the battle of Falkirk in 1298. Sir John Stewart had seven sons. 1. Sir Alexander, ancestor of the Stewarts, Earls of Angus; 2. Sir Alan of Dreghorn, of the Earls and Dukes of Lennox, of the name of Stewart; 3. Sir Walter, of the Earls of Galloway; 4. Sir James, of the Earls of Athole, Buchan, and Traquair, and the Lords of Lorn and Innermeath; 5. Sir John, killed at Halidonhill in 1333; 6. Sir Hugh, who fought in Ireland under Edward Bruce; 7. Sir Robert of Daldowie.

James, the elder son of Alexander, succeeded as fifth high-steward in 1283. On the death of Alexander III. in 1286, he was one of the six magnates of Scotland chosen to act as regents of the kingdom. He died in the service of Bruce, in 1309.

His son, Walter, the sixth high-steward, when only twenty-one years of age, commanded with Douglas the left wing of the Scots army at the battle of Bannockburn. King Robert bestowed his daughter, the Princess Marjory, in marriage upon him, and from them the royal house of Stuart and the present dynasty of Great Britain are descended.

His son, Robert, seventh lord-high-steward, had been declared heir presumptive to the throne in 1318, but the birth of a son to Bruce in 1326 interrupted his prospects for a time. From his grandfather he received large possessions of land in Kintyre. During the long and disastrous reign of David II. the steward acted a patriotic part in the defence of the kingdom. On the death of David, without issue, February 22d, 1371, the steward, who was at that time fifty five years of age, succeeded to the crown as Robert II., being the first of the family of Stewart who ascended the throne of Scotland.

The direct male line of the elder branch of the Stewarts terminated with James V., and at the accession of James VI., whose descent on his father’s side was through the Earl of Lennox, the head of the second branch, there did not exist a male offset of the family which had sprung from an individual later than Robert II. Widely as some branches of the Stewarts have spread, and numerous as are the families of this name, there is not a lineal male representative of any of the crowned heads of the race, Henry, Cardinal Duke of York,[244] who died in 1807, having been the last. The crown which came into the Stewart family through a female seems destined ever to be transmitted through a female.

The male representation or chiefship of the family is claimed by the Earl of Galloway; also, by the Stewarts of Castlemilk as descended from a junior branch of Darnley and Lennox.

The first and principal seat of the Stewarts was in Renfrewshire, but branches of them penetrated into the Western Highlands and Perthshire, and acquiring territories there, became founders of distinct families of the name. Of these the principal were the Stewarts of

LORN

LORN, the Stewarts of ATHOLE, and the Stewarts of BALQUHIDDER, from one or other of which all the rest have been derived. How the Stewarts of Lorn acquired that district is told in our account of clan Macdougall. The Stewarts of Lorn were descended from a natural son of John Stewart, the last Lord of Lorn, who, with the assistance of the MacLarens, retained forcible possession of part of his father’s estates. From this family sprang the Stewarts of Appin, in Argyleshire, who, with the Athole branches, were considered in the Highlands as forming the clan Stewart. The badge of the original Stewarts was the oak, and of the royal Stuarts, the thistle.

In the end of the fifteenth century, the Stewarts of Appin were vassals of the Earl of Argyll in his lordship of Lorn. In 1493 the name of the chief was Dougal Stewart. He was the natural son of John Stewart, the last Lord of Lorn, and Isabella, eldest daughter of the first Earl of Argyll. The assassination of Campbell of Calder, guardian of the young Earl of Argyll, in February 1592, caused a feud between the Stewarts of Appin and the Campbells, the effects of which were long felt. During the civil wars, the Stewarts of Appin ranged themselves under the banners of Montrose, and at the battle of Inverlochy, 2d February 1645, rendered that chivalrous nobleman good service. They and the cause which they upheld were opposed by the Campbells, who possessed the north side of the same parish, a small rivulet, called _Con Ruagh_, or red bog, from the rough swamp through which it ran, being the dividing line of their lands.

The Stewarts of Appin under their chief, Robert Stewart, engaged in the rebellion of 1715, when they brought 400 men into the field. They were also “out” in 1745, under Stewart of Ardshiel, 300 strong. Some lands in Appin were forfeited on the latter occasion, but were afterwards restored. The principal family is extinct, and their estate has passed to others, chiefly to a family of the name of Downie. There are still, however, many branches of this tribe remaining in Appin. The chief cadets are the families of Ardshiel, Invernahyle, Auchnacrone, Fasnacloich, and Balachulish.

Between the Stewarts of Invernahyle and the Campbells of Dunstaffnage there existed a bitter feud, and about the beginning of the sixteenth century, the former family were all cut off but one child, the infant son of Stewart of Invernahyle, by the chief of Dunstaffnage, called _Cailein Uaine_, “Green Colin.” The boy’s nurse fled with him to Ardnamurchan, where her husband, the blacksmith of the district, resided. The latter brought him up to his own trade, and at sixteen years of age he could wield two forehammers at once, one in each hand, on the anvil, which acquired for him the name of _Domhnull nan ord_, “Donald of the hammers.” Having made a two-edged sword for him, his foster-father, on presenting it, told him of his birth and lineage, and of the event which was the cause of his being brought to Ardnamurchan. Burning with a desire for vengeance, Donald set off with twelve of his companions, for each of whom, at a smithy at Corpach in Lochaber, he forged a two-edged sword. He then proceeded direct to Dunstaffnage, where he slew Green Colin and fifteen of his retainers. Having recovered his inheritance, he ever after proved himself “the unconquered foe of the Campbell.” The chief of the Stewarts of Appin being, at the time, a minor, Donald of the hammers was appointed tutor of the clan. He commanded the Stewarts of Appin at the battle of Pinkie in 1547, and on their return homewards from that disastrous field, in a famishing condition, they found in a house at the church of Port of Menteith, some fowls roasting for a marriage party. These they took from the spit, and greedily devoured. They then proceeded on their way. The Earl of Menteith, one of the marriage guests, on being apprised of the circumstance, pursued them, and came up with them at a place called Tobernareal. To a taunt from one of the earl’s attendants, one of the Stewarts replied by an arrow through the heart. In the conflict that ensued, the earl fell by the ponderous arm of Donald of the hammers, and nearly all his followers were killed.[245]

The Stewarts of ATHOLE consist almost entirely of the descendants, by his five illegitimate sons, of Sir Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, called, from his ferocity, “The wolf of Badenoch,” the fourth son of Robert II., by his first wife, Elizabeth More. One of his natural sons, Duncan Stewart, whose disposition was as ferocious as his father’s, at the head of a vast number of wild Catherans, armed only with the sword and target, descended from the range of hills which divides the counties of Aberdeen and Forfar, and began to devastate the country and murder the inhabitants. Sir Walter Ogilvy, sheriff of Angus, Sir Patrick Gray, and Sir David Lindsay of Glenesk, immediately collected a force to repel them, and a desperate conflict took place at Gasklune, near the water of Isla, in which the former were overpowered, and most of them slain.

James Stewart, another of the Wolf of Badenoch’s natural sons, was the ancestor of the family of Stewart of Garth, from which proceed almost all the other Athole Stewarts. The Garth family became extinct in the direct line, by the death of General David Stewart, author of “Sketches of the Highlanders.” The possessions of the Athole Stewarts lay mainly on the north side of Loch Tay.

The Balquhidder Stewarts derive their origin from illegitimate branches of the Albany family.

The Stewarts or Steuarts[246] of GRANDTULLY, Perthshire, are descended from James Stewart of Pierston and Warwickhill, Ayrshire, who fell at Halidon Hill in 1333, fourth son of Sir John Stewart of Bonkill, son of Alexander, fourth lord-high-steward of Scotland, who died in 1283.

James Stewart’s son was Sir Robert Stewart of Shambothy and Innermeath, whose son, Sir John Stewart, was the first of the Stewarts of Lorn. The fourth son of the latter, Alexander Stewart, was ancestor of the Stewarts of Grandtully. “On the resignation of his father, Sir John (apparently the first Stewart of Grandtully), he received a charter from Archibald, Earl of Douglas, of the lands of Grandtully, Kyltilich, and Aberfeldy, 30th March 1414. He married Margaret, sister of John Hay (?) of Tulliebodie.”[247]

Of this family was Thomas Stewart of BALCASKIE, Fifeshire, a lord of session, created a baronet of Nova Scotia, June 2, 1683. He was cousin, through his father, of John Stewart, thirteenth of Grandtully, who died without issue in 1720, and was succeeded by Sir Thomas’s son, Sir George Stewart, who also died without issue. He was succeeded by his brother, Sir John Stewart, third baronet, an officer of rank in the army, who married, 1st, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir James Mackenzie of Royston, and had by her an only surviving son, Sir John, fourth baronet; 2dly, Lady Jane Douglas, only daughter of James, Marquis of Douglas, and his son, by her, Archibald Stewart, after a protracted litigation, succeeded to the immense estates of his uncle, the last Duke of Douglas, and assuming that name, was created a peer of the United Kingdom, by the title of Baron Douglas. Sir John Stewart married, 3dly, Helen, a daughter of the fourth Lord Elibank, without issue. He died in 1764.

His son, Sir John, fourth baronet, died in 1797.

Sir John’s eldest son, Sir George, fifth baronet, married Catherine, eldest daughter of John Drummond, Esq. of Logie Almond, and died in 1827, leaving five sons and two daughters.

The eldest son, Sir John, sixth baronet, died without issue, May 20, 1838.

His brother, Sir William Drummond Steuart, born December 26, 1795, succeeded as seventh baronet. He married in 1830, and had a son William George, captain 93d Highlanders, born in February 1831, and died October 1868. Sir William died April 28, 1871, and was succeeded by his youngest brother Archibald Douglas, born August 29, 1807.

The Stewarts of DRUMIN, Banffshire, now Belladrum, Inverness-shire, trace their descent from Sir Walter Stewart of Strathaven, knighted for his services at the battle of Harlaw in 1411, one of the illegitimate sons of the Wolf of Badenoch, and consequently of royal blood.

The Stewarts of ARDVOIRLICH, Perthshire, are descended from James Stewart, called James the Gross, fourth and only surviving son of Murdoch, Duke of Albany, Regent of Scotland, beheaded in 1425. On the ruin of his family he fled to Ireland, where, by a lady of the name of Macdonald, he had seven sons and one daughter. James II. created Andrew, the eldest son, Lord Avandale.

James, the third son, ancestor of the Stewarts of Ardvoirlich, married Annabel, daughter of Buchanan of that ilk.

His son, William Stewart, who succeeded him, married Mariota, daughter of Sir Colin Campbell of Glenorchy, and had several children. From one of his younger sons, John, the family of Stewart of Glenbuckie, and from another, that of Stewart of Gartnaferaran, both in Perthshire, were descended.

His eldest son, Walter Stewart, succeeded his father, and married Euphemia, daughter of James Reddoch of Cultobraggan, comptroller of the household of James IV.

His son, Alexander Stewart of Ardvoirlich, married Margaret, daughter of Drummond of Drummond Erinoch, and had two sons, James, his successor, and John, ancestor of the Perthshire families of Stewart of Annat, Stewart of Ballachallan, and Stewart of Craigtoun.

The family of Steuart of DALGUISE, Perthshire, are descended from Sir John Stewart of Arntullie and Cardneys, also designed of Dowallie, the youngest natural son of King Robert II. of Scotland, by Marion or Mariota de Cardney, daughter of John de Cardney of that ilk, sister of Robert Cardney, bishop of Dunkeld from 1396 to 1436.

The Steuarts of BALLECHIN, in the same county, are descended from Sir John Stewart, an illegitimate son of King James II. of Scotland. Having purchased the lands of Sticks in Glenquaich from Patrick Cardney of that ilk, he got a charter of those lands from King James III., dated in December 1486. The family afterwards acquired the lands of Ballechin.

There are many other Stewart families throughout Scotland, but as we are concerned only with these which can be considered Highland, it would be beyond our province to notice any more. The spelling of this name seems very capricious: the royal spelling is Stuart, while most families spell it Stewart, and a few Steuart and Steuard. We have endeavoured always to give the spelling adhered to by the various families whom we have noticed.

FRASER.

The first of the surname of FRASER in Scotland was undoubtedly of Norman origin, and, it is not improbable, came over with William the Conqueror. The Chronicles of the Fraser family ascribe its origin to one Pierre Fraser, seigneur de Troile, who in the reign of Charlemagne, came to Scotland with the ambassadors from France to form a league with King Achaius; but this is, of course, fabulous. Their account of the creation of their arms is equally incredible. According to their statement, in the reign of Charles the Simple of France, Julius de Berry, a nobleman of Bourbon, entertaining that monarch with a dish of fine strawberries was, for the same, knighted, the strawberry flowers, _fraises_, given him for his arms, and his name changed from de Berry to Fraiseur or Frizelle. They claim affinity with the family of the Duke de la Frezeliere, in France. The first of the name in Scotland is understood to have settled there in the reign of Malcolm Canmore, when surnames first began to be used, and although the Frasers afterwards became a powerful and numerous clan in Inverness-shire, their earliest settlements were in East Lothian and Tweeddale.

FRASER.

In the reign of David I., Sir Simon Fraser possessed half of the territory of Keith in East Lothian (from him called Keith Simon), and to the monks of Kelso he granted the church of Keith.

A member of the same family, Gilbert de Fraser, obtained the lands of North Hailes, also in East Lothian, as a vassal of the Earl of March and Dunbar, and is said to have been witness to a charter of Cospatrick to the monks of Coldstream, during the reign of Alexander I. He also possessed large estates in Tweeddale.

In the reign of Alexander II., the chief of the family was Bernard de Fraser, supposed to have been the grandson of the above-named Gilbert, by a third son, whose name is conjectured to have been Simon. Bernard was a frequent witness to the charters of Alexander II., and in 1234 was made sheriff of Stirling, an honour long hereditary in his family. By his talents he raised himself from being the vassal of a subject to be a tenant in chief to the king. He acquired the ancient territory of Oliver Castle, which he transmitted to his posterity. He was succeeded by his son Sir Gilbert Fraser, who was sheriff or vicecomes of Traquair during the reigns of Alexander II. and his successor. He had three sons: Simon, his heir; Andrew, sheriff of Stirling in 1291 and 1293; and William, chancellor of Scotland from 1274 to 1280, and bishop of St. Andrews from 1279 to his death in 1297.

Sir Simon Fraser, the eldest son, was a man of great influence and power. He possessed the lands of Oliver Castle, Neidpath Castle, and other lands in Tweeddale; and accompanied King Alexander II. in a pilgrimage to Iona, a short time previous to the death of that monarch. He was knighted by Alexander III., who, in the beginning of his reign, conferred on him the office of high sheriff of Tweeddale, which he held from 1263 to 1266. He died in 1291. He had an only son, Sir Simon Fraser, the renowned patriot, with whom may be said (in 1306) to have expired the direct male line of the south country Frasers, after having been the most considerable family in Peeblesshire during the Scoto-Saxon period of our history, from 1097 to 1306.

The male representation of the principal family of Fraser devolved, on the death of the great Sir Simon, on the next collateral heir; his uncle, Sir Andrew, second son of Sir Gilbert Fraser, above mentioned. He is supposed to have died about 1308, surviving his renowned nephew, Sir Simon, only two years. He was, says the historian of the family,[248] “the first of the name of Fraser who established an interest for himself and his descendants in the northern parts of Scotland, and more especially in Inverness-shire, where they have ever since figured with such renown and distinction.” He married a wealthy heiress in the county of Caithness, then and for many centuries thereafter comprehended within the sheriffdom of Inverness, and in right of his wife he acquired a very large estate in the north of Scotland. He had four sons, namely--Simon, the immediate male ancestor of the Lords Lovat, and whose descendants and dependants (the clan Fraser), after the manner of the Celts, took the name of MacShimi, or sons of Simon; Sir Alexander, who obtained the estate of Touch, as the appanage of a younger son; and Andrew and James, slain with their brother, Simon, at the disastrous battle of Halidonhill, 22d July 1333.

The ancient family of the Frasers of PHILORTH in Aberdeenshire, who have enjoyed since 1669 the title of Lord Saltoun, is immediately descended from William, son of an Alexander Fraser, who flourished during the early part of the fourteenth century, and inherited from his father the estates of Cowie and Durris in Kincardineshire.

The proper Highland clan Fraser was that headed by the Lovat branch in Inverness-shire, as mentioned above.

Unlike the Aberdeenshire or Salton Frasers, the LOVAT branch, the only branch of the Frasers that became Celtic, founded a tribe or clan, and all the natives of the purely Gaelic districts of the Aird and Stratherrick came to be called by their name. The Simpsons, “sons of Simon,” are also considered to be descended from them, and the Tweedies of Tweeddale are supposed, on very plausible grounds, to have been originally Frasers. Logan’s conjecture that the name of Fraser is a corruption of the Gaelic _Friosal_, from _frith_, a forest, and _siol_, a race, the th being silent (that is, the race of the forest), however pleasing to the clan as proving them an indigenous Gaelic tribe, may only be mentioned here as a mere fancy of his own.

Simon Fraser, the first of the Frasers of Lovat, fell at the battle of Halidon Hill, 19th July 1333. His son, Hugh Fraser of Lovat, had four sons; Alexander, who died unmarried; Hugh, created a lord of Parliament, under the title of Lord Fraser of Lovat; John, ancestor of the Frasers of Knock in Ayrshire; and another son, ancestor of the Frasers of Foyers.

Hugh, first Lord Lovat, was one of the hostages for James I., on his return to Scotland in 1424, and in 1431 he was appointed high sheriff of the county of Inverness. His son, also named Hugh, second Lord Lovat, was father of Thomas, third lord; Alexander, ancestor of the Frasers of Fanaline, the Frasers of Leadclune, baronets, and other families of the name; and James, ancestor of the Frasers of BALLYFURTH and FORD, of whom Major-General Simon Fraser, late of Ford, is the lineal male descendant and representative.

Thomas, third lord, held the office of justiciary of the north in the reign of James IV., and died 21st October 1524. He had four sons: Thomas, master of Lovat, killed at Flodden, 9th September 1513, unmarried; Hugh, fourth Lord Lovat; Alexander, fifth lord; and William Fraser of Struy, ancestor of several families of the name in Inverness-shire.

Hugh, fourth lord, the queen’s justiciary in the north, resigned his whole estates into the hands of King James V., and obtained from his majesty a new charter, dated 26th March 1539, uniting and incorporating them into the barony of Lovat, to him and the heirs male of his body, failing whom to his nearest lawful heirs male, bearing the name and arms of Fraser, and failing them to his heirs whatsoever. With his eldest son Hugh, Master of Lovat, he was killed in an engagement with the Macdonalds of Clanranald at Lochlochy, Inverness-shire, 2d June 1544.[249] His brother, Alexander, fifth Lord Lovat, died in 1558. With one daughter, the latter had three sons: Hugh, sixth lord; Thomas, ancestor of the Frasers of Strichen, from whom Lord Lovat of Lovat is descended; and James of Ardochie.

Hugh, sixth Lord Lovat, had a son, Simon, seventh lord, who was twice married, and died 3d April 1633. By his first wife, Margaret, eldest daughter of Sir Colin Mackenzie of Kintail, he had two sons,--Simon, Master of Lovat, who predeceased him, without issue, and Hugh, eighth Lord Lovat, who died 16th February 1646. By a second wife, Jean Stewart, daughter of Lord Doune, he had Sir Simon Fraser, ancestor of the Frasers of Innerallochy; Sir James Fraser of Brae, and one daughter. Hugh, eighth lord, had, with three daughters, three sons, namely,--Simon, Master of Lovat, and Hugh, who both predeceased their father, the one in 1640 and the other in 1643, and Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, eleventh Lord Lovat. The second son, Hugh, styled after his elder brother’s death, Master of Lovat, left a son Hugh, ninth lord, who succeeded his grandfather in February 1646, and married in July 1659, when a boy of sixteen years of age at college, Anne, second daughter of Sir John Mackenzie of Tarbet, baronet, sister of the first Earl of Cromarty, and by her had a son, Hugh, tenth lord, and three daughters.

Hugh, tenth lord, succeeded his father in 1672, and died in 1696, when Thomas Fraser of Beaufort, third son of the eighth lord, became eleventh Lord Lovat, but did not take the title. The tenth lord married Lady Amelia Murray, only daughter of the first Marquis of Athole, and had four daughters. His eldest daughter, Amelia, assumed the title of Baroness Lovat, and married in 1702, Alexander Mackenzie, younger of Prestonhall, who assumed the name of Fraser of Fraserdale. His son, Hugh Fraser, on the death of his mother, adopted the title of Lord Lovat, which, however, by decree of the Court of Session, 3d July 1730, was declared to belong to Simon, Lord Fraser of Lovat, as eldest lawful son of Thomas, Lord Fraser of Lovat, grand-uncle of the tenth lord. This judgment proceeded on the charter of 1539, and though pronounced by an incompetent court, was held to be right. To prevent an appeal, a compromise was made, by which Hugh Mackenzie ceded to Simon, Lord Lovat, for a valuable consideration, his pretensions to the honours, and his right to the estates, after his father’s death.

Thomas Fraser of BEAUFORT, by right eleventh Lord Lovat, died at Dunvegan in Skye in May 1699. By his first wife, Sibylla, fourth daughter of John Macleod of Macleod, he had fourteen children, ten of whom died young. Simon, the eldest surviving son, was the celebrated Lord Lovat, beheaded in April 1747.

The clan Fraser formed part of the army of the Earl of Seaforth, when, in the beginning of 1645, that nobleman advanced to oppose the great Montrose, who designed to seize Inverness, previous to the battle of Inverlochy, in which the latter defeated the Campbells under the Marquis of Argyll in February of that year. After the arrival of King Charles II. in Scotland in 1650, the Frasers, to the amount of eight hundred men, joined the troops raised to oppose Cromwell, their chief’s son, the Master of Lovat, being appointed one of the colonels of foot for Inverness and Ross. In the rebellion of 1715, under their last famous chief, Simon, Lord Lovat, they did good service to the government by taking possession of Inverness, which was then in the hands of the Jacobites. In 1719 also, at the affair of Glenshiel, in which the Spaniards were defeated on the west coast of Inverness-shire, the Frasers fought resolutely on the side of government, and took possession of the castle of Brahan, the seat of the Earl of Seaforth. On the breaking out of the rebellion of 1745, they did not at first take any part in the struggle, but after the battle of Prestonpans, on the 21st September, Lord Lovat “mustered his clan,” and their first demonstration in favour of the Pretender was to make a midnight attack on the Castle of Culloden, but found it garrisoned and prepared for their reception. On the morning of the battle of Culloden, six hundred of the Frasers, under the command of the Master of Lovat, a fine young man of nineteen, effected a junction with the rebel army, and behaved during the action with characteristic valour.

Lord Lovat’s eldest son, Simon Fraser, Master of Lovat, afterwards entered the service of government, and rose to the rank of lieutenant-general in the army.

General Fraser was succeeded by his half-brother, Colonel Archibald Campbell Fraser of Lovat, appointed consul-general at Algiers in 1766, and chosen M.P. for Inverness-shire on the general’s death in 1782. By his wife, Jane, sister of William Fraser, Esq. of Leadclune, F.R.S., created a baronet, 27th November 1806, he had five sons, all of whom he survived. On his death, in December 1815, the male descendants of Hugh, ninth Lord Lovat, became extinct, and the male representation of the family, as well as the right to its extensive entailed estates, devolved on the junior descendant of Alexander, fifth lord, Thomas Alexander Fraser, of Lovat and Strichen, who claimed the title of Lord Lovat in the peerage of Scotland, and in 1837 was created a peer of the United Kingdom, by that of Baron Lovat of Lovat.

The family of Fraser, of CASTLE FRASER, in Ross-shire, are descended, on the female side, from the Hon. Sir Simon Fraser, of Inverallochy, second son of Simon, eighth Lord Lovat, but on the male side their name is Mackenzie.

AMERICAN FRASERS.

We cannot close our account of the Frasers without briefly referring to the numerous members of the clan who inhabit British North America. Concerning these we have been obligingly furnished with many details by the Honourable John Fraser de Berry, of St Mark de Cournoyer, Chambly River, Vercheres Cy., District of Montreal, Member of the Legislative Council for Rougemont. The information furnished by this gentleman is very interesting, and we are sorry that the nature of this work, and the space at our disposal, permits us to give only the briefest summary.

It would seem that in the Dominion of Canada the ancient spirit of clanship is far from dead; indeed, it appears to be more intensely full of life there than it is on its native Highland mountains. From statistics furnished to us by our obliging informant, it would appear that in British North America there are bearing the old name of Fraser 12,000 persons, men, women, and children, some speaking English and some French, many Protestants and many Roman Catholics, but all, we believe, unflinchingly loyal to the British throne. Not one of these, according to the Honourable J. Fraser de Berry’s report, is a day labourer, “earning daily wages,” but all more or less well-to-do in the world, and filling respectable, and many of them responsible positions. Many are descendants of the officers and soldiers of the “Fraser Highlanders,” who settled in British North America after the American war. “They are all strong well built men, hardy, industrious, and sober, having fine comfortable houses, where quietness reigns and plenty abounds.”

Some years ago a movement was formed among these enthusiastic and loyal Frasers to organise themselves into a branch clan, to be called the “New Clan Fraser,” partly for the purpose of reviving and keeping alive the old clan feeling, and partly for purposes of benevolence. At a meeting held in February 1868, at Quebec, this movement took definite shape, and “resolutions were unanimously passed defining the constitution of the clan, pointing out its object, appointing its dignitaries, determining their duties, and the time and manner of their election.”

As “Chief of the Frasers of the whole of British North America,” was elected the Honourable James Fraser de Ferraline, Member of the Legislative Council for the Province of Nova Scotia, “a wealthy and influential merchant, born in 1802, on the Drummond estate in the braes of Stratherrick, Inverness-shire, Scotland; descended by his father from the Ferraline family of the Frasers, and by his mother from the Gorthlic Frasers. The true Fraser blood,” we are assured, “runs very pure through the veins of the worthy chief.”

The great and undoubted success of this laudable movement is, we believe, mainly owing to the exertions of the Honourable J. Fraser de Berry, whose enthusiasm and loyalty to his descent and ancient kinship are worthy of the palmiest days of clanship in the olden time on its native Highland soil. Besides the “chief” above mentioned, 111 subordinate chieftains[250] of provinces and districts have been appointed, and we are sorry that, for the reasons already mentioned, it is impossible to give a full list of them. We can only say that the gentleman just mentioned was elected Chieftain of the Province of Quebec, and also acts as “Secretary to the New Clan Fraser.” As a specimen of the unflinching thoroughness with which Mr Fraser de Berry performs his duties, and of the intense enthusiasm with which he is animated, we may state that he, founding on documents in his possession, has been able to trace his genealogy, and, therefore, the genealogy of the whole clan, as far back as the year 216 A.D.!

Altogether, we cannot but commend the main object of this organisation of the American Frasers, and think that members of other clans residing in our colonies would do well to follow their example. We believe that no member of the Fraser clan in British North America, who is really anxious to do well, need be in want of the means of success, for if he only make his position known to the authorities of the “New Clan,” all needful assistance will be afforded him. Moreover, we understand, that any one of the name of Fraser, or allied to the clan, emigrating to the dominion from the old country, by applying to any member of the Colonial clan, will be put in the way of obtaining all assistance and information necessary to his comfortable settlement and success in his new home.

Indeed, this movement of the Frasers has so much to commend it, that their example has been followed by persons of other names, in the United States as well as in Canada, and similar clan confederations are in the way of being formed under names that are certainly not Highland.

MENZIES.

From the armorial bearings of the Menzieses it has been conjectured that the first who settled in Scotland of this surname was a branch of the Anglo-Norman family of Meyners, by corruption Manners. But this supposition does not seem to be well-founded.

The family of Menzies obtained a footing in Athole at a very early period, as appears from a charter granted by Robert de Meyners in the reign of Alexander II. This Robert de Meyners, knight, on the accession of Alexander III. (1249) was appointed lord high chamberlain of Scotland. His son, Alexander de Meyners, possessed the lands of Weem and Aberfeldy in Athole, and Glendochart in Breadalbane, besides his original seat of Durrisdeer in Nithsdale, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Robert, in the estates of Weem, Aberfeldy, and Durrisdeer, whilst his second son, Thomas, obtained the lands of Fortingal.

From the former of these is descended the family of Menzies of CASTLE MENZIES, but that of Menzies of Fortingal terminated in an heiress, by whose marriage with James Stewart, a natural son of the Wolf of Badenoch, the property was transferred to the Stewarts.

In 1487, Sir Robert de Mengues, knight, obtained from the crown, in consequence of the destruction of his mansion-house by fire, a grant of the whole lands and estates erected into a free barony, under the title of the barony of Menzies. From this Sir Robert lineally descended Sir Alexander Menzies of Castle Menzies, who was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, 2d September 1665.

Sir Robert Menzies, the seventh baronet, who succeeded his father, 20th August 1844, is the 27th of the family in regular descent. The ancient designation of the family was Menzies of Weem, their common style in old writings. In 1423 “David Menzies of Weem (de Wimo)” was appointed governor of Orkney and Shetland, “under the most clement lord and lady, Eric and Philippa, king and queen of Denmark, Swedland, and Norway.”

The Gaelic appellation of the clan is _Meinnarich_, a term, by way of distinction, also applied to the chief. Of the eighteen clans who fought under Robert Bruce at Bannockburn, the Menzies was one.

The “Menyesses” of Athole and Appin Dull are named in the parliamentary rolls of 1587, as among “the clans that have captains, chiefs, and chieftains.” Castle Menzies, the principal modern seat of the chief, stands to the east of Loch Tay, in the parish and near to the church of Weem, in Perthshire. Weem Castle, the old mansion, is picturesquely situated under a rock, called Craig Uamh, hence its name. In 1502, it was burnt by Niel Stewart of Fortingal, in consequence of a dispute respecting the lands of Rannoch.

In 1644, when the Marquis of Montrose appeared in arms for Charles I., and had commenced his march from Athole towards Strathern, he sent forward a trumpeter, with a friendly notice to the Menzieses, that it was his intention to pass through their country. His messenger, unhappily, was maltreated, and, as some writers say, slain by them. They also harassed the rear of his army, which so exasperated Montrose, that he ordered his men to plunder and lay waste their lands and burn their houses.

During the rebellion of 1715, several gentlemen of the clan Menzies were taken prisoners at the battle of Dunblane. One of them, Menzies of Culdares, having been pardoned for his share in the rebellion, felt himself bound not to join in that of 1745. He sent, however, a valuable horse as a present to Prince Charles, but his servant who had it in charge, was seized and executed, nobly refusing to divulge his master’s name, though offered his life if he would do so. In the latter rebellion, Menzies of Shian took out the clan, and held the rank of colonel, though the chief remained at home. The effective force of the clan in 1745 was 300.

The family of Menzies of PITFODDELS in Aberdeenshire, is now extinct. Gilbert Menzies of this family, carrying the royal standard at the last battle of Montrose, in 1650, repeatedly refused quarter, and fell rather than give up his charge. The last laird, John Menzies of Pitfoddels, never married, and devoted the greater part of his large estate to the endowment of a Roman Catholic College. He died in 1843.

CHISHOLM.

The modern clan CHISHOLM or Siosal, in Inverness-shire, though claiming to be of Celtic origin, are, it is probable, descended from one of the northern collaterals of the original family of Chisholme of Chisholme in Roxburghshire, which possessed lands there as early as the reign of Alexander III.

Few families have asserted their right to be considered as a Gaelic clan with greater vehemence than the Chisholms, notwithstanding that there are perhaps few whose Lowland origin is less doubtful. Their early charters suffice to establish the real origin of the family with great clearness. The Highland possessions of the family consist of Comer, Strathglass, &c., in which is situated their castle of Erchless, and the manner in which they acquired these lands is proved by the fact, that there exists a confirmation of an indenture betwixt William de Fenton of Baky on the one part, and “_Margaret de la Ard domina de Erchless and Thomas de Chishelme her son and heir_” on the other part, dividing between them the lands of which they were heirs portioners, and among these lands is the barony of the Ard in Inverness-shire. This deed is dated at Kinrossy, 25th of April, 1403.

In all probability, therefore, the husband of Margaret must have been Alexander de Chishelme, who is mentioned in 1368 as comportioner of the barony of Ard along with Lord Fenton.

The Chisholms came into prominence in the reign of David II., when Sir Robert de Chisholm married the daughter of Sir Robert Lauder of Quarrelwood, and ultimately succeeded him in the government of Urquhart Castle. In 1376 he occupied the important position of justiciar north of the Forth.

Wiland de Chesholm obtained a charter of the lands of Comer dated 9th April 1513. In 1587, the chiefs on whose lands resided “broken men,” were called upon to give security for their peaceable behaviour, among whom appears “Cheisholme of Cummer.” After the battle of Killiecrankie in 1689, Erchless castle, the seat of the chief, was garrisoned for King James, and General Livingstone, the commander of the government forces, had considerable difficulty in dislodging the Highlanders. In 1715, Ruari, or Roderick MacIan, the chief, signed the address of a hundred and two chiefs and heads of houses to George the First, expressive of their attachment and loyalty, but no notice being taken of it, he engaged very actively in the rising under the Earl of Mar; and at the battle of Dunblane, the clan was headed by Chisholm of Crocfin, an aged veteran, for which the estates of the chief were forfeited and sold. In 1727, he procured, with several other chiefs, a pardon under the privy seal, and the lands were subsequently conveyed, by the then proprietor, to Roderick’s eldest son, who entailed them on his heirs male. In 1745, this chief joined the standard of the Pretender with his clan, and Colin, his youngest son, was appointed colonel of the clan battalion. Lord President Forbes thus states the strength of the Chisholms at that period. “Chisholms--Their chief is Chisholm of Strathglass, in Gaelic called Chisallich. His lands are held crown, and he can bring out two hundred of the men.”

Alexander Chisholm, chief of the clan, who succeeded in 1785, left an only child, Mary, married to James Gooden, Esq., London, and dying in 1793, the chiefship and estates, agreeably to the deed of entail, devolved on his youngest brother, William, who married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Duncan MacDonnell, Esq. of Glengarry, and left two sons and one daughter. On his death in 1817 he was succeeded by the elder son, Alexander William, once member of parliament for Inverness-shire, who died, prematurely, in September 1838. He was succeeded by his brother, Duncan MacDonnell Chisholm, who died in London 14th September 1858, aged 47, when the estate devolved on James Sutherland Chisholm, the present Chisholm, son of Roderich, son of Archibald, eldest son of the above Alexander, who resides at Erchless Castle, Inverness-shire.

The common designation of the chief of the house is THE CHISHOLM, and, whatever be its antiquity, it is a title which is very generally accorded to him, and, like the designation of “The O’Connor Don,” has ever been sanctioned by use in the senate. An old chief of the clan Chisholm once not very modestly said that there were but three persons in the world entitled to it--‘the Pope, the King, and the Chisholm.’

One of the chiefs of this clan having carried off a daughter of Lord Lovat, placed her on an islet in Loch Bruirach, where she was soon discovered by the Frazers, who had mustered for the rescue. A severe conflict ensued, during which the young lady was accidentally slain by her own brother. A plaintive Gaelic song records the sad calamity, and numerous tumuli mark the graves of those who fell.

The once great family of Chisholme of CROMLIX, sometimes written CROMLECK, in Perthshire, which for above a century held the hereditary bailie and justiciary-ship of the ecclesiastical lordship of Dunblane, and furnished three bishops to that see, but which is now extinct, was also descended from the border Chisholmes; the first of that family, Edmund Chisholme of Cromlix, early in the fifteenth century, being the son of Chisholme of Chisholme in Roxburghshire.

* * * * *

Into the history of other families--for they can scarcely be called clans--living on the Highland borders, and who have at one time played an important part in Highland history, and some of whom at the present day are regarded as genuine Highland families, it would be out of place for us to enter here. We refer to such families as the Murrays, Drummonds, Grahams, Gordons, Cumings, &c. We shall conclude this account of the Highland clans by referring briefly to the origin of these houses.

MURRAY (ATHOLE).

The acknowledged chieftainship of the great family of Murray, or Moray (originally Murreff) is vested in Moray-Stirling of Abercairney and Ardoch, both in Perthshire. The Murrays are generally supposed to have descended from Freskine, a Fleming, who settled in Scotland in the reign of David I. (1122-1153), and acquired from that monarch the lands of Strathbroch in Linlithgowshire, and of Duffus in Moray.

The Athole Murrays are descended from Sir William de Moravia, who acquired the lands of TULLIBARDINE, an estate in the lower part of Perthshire, with his wife Adda, daughter of Malise, seneschal of Strathern, as appears by charters dated in 1282 and 1284.

His descendant, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, succeeded to the estates of his family in 1446. He was sheriff of Perthshire, and in 1458, one of the lords named for the administration of justice, who were of the king’s daily council. He married Margaret, daughter of Sir John Colquhoun of Luss, great chamberlain of Scotland, by whom he had a numerous issue. According to tradition they had seventeen sons, from whom a great many families of the name of Murray are descended. In a curious document entitled “The Declaration of George Halley, in Ochterarder, concerning the Laird of Tullibardine’s seventeen sons--1710,” it is stated that they “lived all to be men, and that they waited all one day upon their father at Stirling, to attend the king, with each of them one servant and their father two. This happening shortly after an act was made by King James Fifth, discharging any person to travel with great numbers of attendants besides their own family, and having challenged the laird of Tullibardine for breaking the said act, he answered he brought only his own sons, with their necessary attendants: with which the king was so well pleased that he gave them small lands in heritage.”

The eldest of Tullibardine’s seventeen sons, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, had, with other issue, William, his successor, and Sir Andrew Murray, ancestor of the Viscounts Stormont. His great-grandson, Sir William Murray of Tullibardine, was a zealous promoter of the Reformation in Scotland. George Halley, in the curious document already quoted says that “Sir William Murray of Tullibardine having broke Argyll’s face with the hilt of his sword, in King James the Sixth’s presence, was obliged to leave the kingdom. Afterwards, the king’s mails and slaughter cows were not paid, neither could any subject to the realm be able to compel those who were bound to pay them; upon which the king cried out--‘O, if I had Will. Murray again, he would soon get my mails and slaughter cows;’ to which one standing by replied--‘That if his majesty would not take Sir William Murray’s life, he might return shortly.’ The king answered, ‘He would be loath to take his life, for he had not another subject like him!’ Upon which promise Sir William Murray returned and got a commission from the king to go to the north, and lift up the mails and the cows, which he speedily did, to the great satisfaction of the king, so that immediately after he was made lord comptroller.” This office he obtained in 1565.

His eldest son, Sir John Murray, the twelfth feudal baron of Tullibardine, was brought up with King James, who, in 1592, constituted him his master of the household. On 10th July 1606 he was created Earl of Tullibardine. His lordship married Catherine, fourth daughter of David, second Lord Drummond, and died in 1609.

His eldest son, William, second Earl of Tullibardine, married Lady Dorothea Stewart, daughter of the fifth Earl of Athole of the Stewart family, who died in 1595, and on the death in 1625 of James, second Earl of Athole, son of John, sixth Lord Innermeath, created Earl of Athole by James VI., he petitioned King Charles the First for the earldom of Athole, as his countess was the eldest daughter and heir of line of Earl John, of the family of Innermeath, which had become extinct in the male line. The king received the petition graciously, and gave his royal word that it should be done. The earl accordingly surrendered the title of Earl of Tullibardine into the king’s hands, 1st April 1626, to be conferred on his brother Sir Patrick Murray, as a separate dignity, but before the patents could be issued, his lordship died the same year. His son John, however, obtained in February 1629 the title of Earl of Athole, and thus became the first earl of the Murray branch, and the earldom of Tullibardine was at the same time granted to Sir Patrick. This Earl of Athole was a zealous royalist, and joined the association formed by the Earl of Montrose for the king at Cumbernauld, in January 1641. He died in June 1642. His eldest son John, second Earl of Athole of the Murray family, also faithfully adhered to Charles the First, and was excepted by Cromwell out of his act of grace and indemnity, 12th April 1654, when he was only about nineteen years of age. At the restoration, he was sworn a privy councillor, obtained a charter of the hereditary office of sheriff of Fife, and in 1663 was appointed justice-general of Scotland. In 1670 he was constituted captain of the king’s guards, in 1672 keeper of the privy seal, and 14th January 1673, an extraordinary lord of session. In 1670 he succeeded to the earldom of Tullibardine on the death of James, fourth earl of the new creation, and was created Marquis of Athole in 1676. He increased the power of his family by his marriage with Lady Amelia Sophia Stanley, third daughter of the seventh Earl of Derby, beheaded for his loyalty 15th October 1651. Through her mother, Charlotte de la Tremouille, daughter of Claude de la Tremouille, Duke of Thouars and Prince of Palmont, she was related in blood to the Emperor of Germany, the kings of France and Spain, the Prince of Orange, the Duke of Savoy, and most of the principal families of Europe; and by her the family of Athole acquired the seignory of the Isle of Man, and also large property in that island.