A System of Heraldry - Clan Strachan Society

380
OF FLOWERS AND LEAVES.
thanes of the Isle of Man, and afterwards settled in Tweeddale ; and when sur-
names came in use, they took the name of Fraser.
In the Register of Kelso, Simoii Fraser dotes several lands to that abbacy. In
the reign
of King Malcolm IV. and in the Register of Newbattle, the donation of
Adam Fraser is there, of the lands of Southale, mentioning a gift of his uncle
Oliver to that abbey. The seat of the Frasers was Oliver-Castle in that county,
probably so called from the above Oliver. From this family proceeded the Frasers
of Toucli in the shire of Stirling, and others in the north.
The right line of the Frasers in Tweeddale ended in the heiresses of Sir Simon
Fraser ; the eldest was married to Hay of Locharrat in the south, progenitor of
the Earls of Tweeddale, and another to Sir Malcolm Fleming, predecessor to the
Earls of Wigton ;
for which cause these families have always been in use to quarter
the Frasers' arms with their own, which, in old books, are azure, five frases or cinquefoils
placed in saltier argent, though these many years they have been illuminated
azure, three cinquefoils, 2 and I argent.
The male representer of the Frasers of Oliver-Castle in Tweeddale is said to
have gotten great possesions in the north of Scotland, which he and his successors
enjoyed under the title of Lord Fraser, whose armorial bearings were as above.
For the antiquity of those in the north, Ricardus Fraser is a witness in the reign
of Alexander II. and William Fraser, designed Cancellarius, is, with Simon Fraser,
a witness in the charter of King Alexander III. of the lands of Bethwaldoff, to the
abbacy
of Dunfermline. Had. Collect.
After the death of this King, we find William Fraser Archbishop of St Andrews,
?I'DufFEarl of Fife, and John Cumin Earl of Buchan, Governors of Scotland benorth
the river Forth, in the year 1293. About the same time Sir Andrew Fraser,
designed Vicccomes de Striviling, is a \vitness in a charter of William Gourlay to
the abbacy of Kelso. (Dalrymple's Collections.) He was one of the auditors ap-
pointed by King Edward I. between the Bruce and the Baliol ; and, on his seal,
2 and i.
says Sir George Mackenzie in his Manuscript, were six frases, disposed 3,
Sir Alexander Fraser (whom some call Lord Fraser) married Mary Bruce, sister
of King Robert the Bruce, and widow of Sir Neil Campbell of Lochow, ancestor
to the Duke of Argyle. This King grants a charter of several lands, " in tene-
" mento de Auchincairn, Alexandra Frazer militi, & hasredibus suis, inter ipsum
" & quondam Mariam Bruce, sororem nostram dilectam, legittime procreatis ;"
dated at Kinross the i8th year of his reign; and two years afterwards he gives a
more ample one of the fore-mentioned lands, cum communi pastura Thanagii nostri
de Kincardine, to the said Sir Alexander and his son John, designed the King's
nephew. (Had. Collect.) And the same year, being the 2oth of that King's
reign, Sir Alexander Fraser is designed Camerarius noster in that King's charter to
the friars and monks at Edinburgh, of five merks Sterling, to be paid out of the
mill of Libberton. Ibid.
Sir Alexander had several sons, John above-named, and Alexander, from whom
descended other honourable families of the name, as Fraser of Lovat and Dore.s.
Sir John, the eldest son, died without male issue, leaving only one daughter, Mar-
garet Fraser, married to Sir William Keith Marischal, by whom he had John his
eldest son, who died in the lifetime of his father, leaving issue by his wife, a
daughter of King Robert II. a son Robert ;. but he dying without male issue, his
heir-female was married to Alexander, first Earl of Huntly ; for which Gordon
quarters the arms of Fraser, as before.
There are many honourable families of the name of FRASER ;
to give a deduction
of their genealogical descents would swell my book beyond the designed
bulk :
I am, therefore, here necessitated to speak only to their armorial bearings, with some
observes on their antiquity, as it relates to their achievements.
FRASER. Lord LOVAT, quarterly, first and fourth azure, five cinquefoils in saltier
argent, for Fraser, (of late three cinquefoils^ 2 and i) ; second and third argent,
three antique crowns gules, (for Bisset, as some say) supported by two bucks seiant,
proper, in the middle of bushes of holly vert; crest, a buck's head erased or, armed
argent : motto, / am ready.
The first of this family was Simon Fraser, a son of Sir Alexander Fraser, nephew
to King Robert Bruce: He or his successor got the lands of Lovat, by marrying