[303] Simon Fraser, b. 1726: after Culloden gave himself up to Government; attainted 1746, pardoned 1750; joined the Scottish bar 1752; acted as Advocate-Depute in the Appin murder trial, an episode immortalised in R. L. Stevenson’s Catriona; raised a Highland regiment for the Government 1757, and served with it under Wolfe in Canada (regiment disbanded 1763); M.P. Inverness 1761; family estates restored to him 1774; raised a second regiment of two battalions 1775, for the American War, which he did not accompany (regiment disbanded 1783); died a lieut.-general 1782. Sir Walter Scott calls the Master of Lovat the good son of a bad father. A very different account is given by Mrs. Grant of Laggan—‘he differed from his father only as a chain’d-up fox does from one at liberty.’ (See Wariston’s Diary, etc., p. 275, Scot. Hist. Soc., vol. xxvi.)
[304] Charles Fraser the younger, b. 1725, nephew and heir-presumptive of William Fraser of Inverallochy, Aberdeenshire, the senior cadet of Lovat’s clan.
His father, Charles Fraser of Castle Fraser, younger brother of the laird of Inverallochy, had inherited the property of Muchall or Castle Fraser (Kemnay, Aberdeenshire), on the death of his step-grandfather Charles, 4th and last Lord Fraser, who lost his life near Banff by falling over a precipice while in hiding to avoid capture after the ’15. In 1723 the elder Charles Fraser was created ‘Lord Fraser of Mushall’ by the Chevalier in recognition of his services, and particularly those of his father, ‘who died bravely asserting our cause, and in consideration of the earnest desire of the late Lord Fraser, when we were last in Scotland, to resign his titles of honour in favour of the said Charles’ father.’ I am not aware of what these special services were, nor why the elder brother William was passed over both for the Castle Fraser inheritance and the Jacobite peerage. Charles Fraser eventually succeeded to Inverallochy in 1749 on the death of his brother William. He was probably too old to go out in 1745, and his son went out as Lovat’s lieut.-colonel, ‘in accordance with the ancient highland practice and the policy of Lord Lovat as being nearest in blood to the chiefship.’ Young Inverallochy was killed at Culloden, and the story of his death is very painful. It is first told in a general way in The Lyon (ii. 305; iii. 56), and afterwards with more detail by Sir Henry Seton Steuart of Allanton in the Antijacobin Review of 1802 (p. 125) as follows:—
‘When the celebrated General Wolfe (at this period a lieut.-colonel in the army) was riding over the field of battle with the D—— of C-m-b-l-d, they observed a Highlander, who, though severely wounded, was yet able to sit up, and, leaning on his arm, seemed to smile defiance of them.—“Wolfe,” said the D——, “shoot me that Highland scoundrel, who thus dares to look on us with such contempt and insolence!”—“My commission,” replied the manly officer, “is at your R——l H——s’s disposal, but I never can consent to become an executioner.” The Highlander, it is probable, was soon knocked on the head by some ruffian less scrupulous than the future conqueror of Quebec. But it was remarked by those who heard the story, that Colonel Wolfe, from that day, visibly declined in the favour and confidence of the commander-in-chief. We believe that some officers are still alive who are not unacquainted with this anecdote.’
Mr. Beckles Willson, Wolfe’s latest biographer, accepts the story as regards Wolfe but doubts its applicability to Cumberland. Wolfe, it must be remembered, was on Hawley’s staff, not Cumberland’s. These generals could easily have been mistaken for each other. The action is very like Hawley, who was hated by the soldiers, who nicknamed him the Hangman, and who held his military talents in contempt, a feeling shared by Wolfe. Moreover, it was a Jacobite cult to vilify the Duke, and to impute all cruelties to him personally. Seton Steuart was not an entirely unprejudiced writer; he had been brought up in an atmosphere of uncompromising Jacobitism. He was a cousin of Sir James Steuart of Goodtrees and of Provost Stewart of Edinburgh, both of whom suffered; while his wife was grand-daughter of Charles Smith of Boulogne, the Jacobite agent frequently mentioned in Murray’s Papers. (See ante, p. 11.)
[305] James Fraser, 9th of Foyers (Lochness), descended from the 3rd Lord Lovat, was one of the most ruthless and devoted henchmen of Lovat, who made him bailie of Stratherrick. He received from Prince Charles a special commission, dated 23rd September 1745, to seize President Duncan Forbes and carry him prisoner to Edinburgh, an enterprise which failed. His name was excluded from the act of indemnity, but he was afterwards pardoned and his estates restored. It was to his house that John Murray of Broughton was carried the day before Culloden.
[306] N.B.—Most of the Chisholms are Papists.
[307] This does not quite accord with the clan history. Roderick, the chief of Chisholm, was then forty-eight years old. What part he took in the Rising is not on record, but he was specially excluded from the act of indemnity. His eldest son Alexander seems to have stayed at home; his second and third sons were officers in the Government army, and fought under Cumberland at Culloden; his fourth son, who was a physician in Inverness, afterwards provost, seems to have taken no part; his youngest son, Roderick Og, led out the clan; he ‘headed about eighty of the Chisholms at the battle of Culloden, himself and thirty thereof were killed upon the field.’ (Mackenzie, Hist. of the Chisholms.)
[308] The laird was then Alexander Mackenzie, 6th of Fairburn. According to the Marquis d’Éguilles, French envoy to Prince Charles, Fairburn’s wife was Barbara Gordon, of whom he gives the following account in a despatch to his government: ‘Une fort jolie personne ... celle-cy n’a pas banni son mari; mais malgré luy, elle a vendu ses diamants et sa vaisselle pour lever des hommes. Elle a ramassé cent cinquante des plus braves du païs, qu’elle a joint à ceux de miladi Seaforth, sous la conduite de son beau-frère.’ (Cottin, Un Protégé de Bachaumont, p. 51.) The brother-in-law may be Coll Macdonell of Barisdale, who married her husband’s sister; or it may be Kenneth Mackenzie her husband’s brother who although only a schoolboy was a captain in Barisdale’s regiment. (Lord Rosebery’s List of Persons Concerned in the Rebellion, p. 76.) This lady is not mentioned in the genealogies of Alex. Mackenzie’s Hist. of the Mackenzies, which are, however, manifestly incomplete.
[309] Alexander Macgillivray of Dunmaglas, the lieut.-colonel of Lady Mackintosh’s regiment, and Gillise Macbain, Dalmagarrie, the major, were both killed at Culloden.