I C,cs. sw^.6^ PUBLICATIONS OF THE SCOTTISH HISTORY SOCIETY THIRD SERIES VOLUME V PAPERS FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIR WILLIAM FRASER, K.C.B., LL.D. January 1924 This Volume is presented to the Members of the Scottish History Society of the year 1922-23 by the Trustees of the late Sir William Fraser, K.C.B., LL.D., in exercise of the authority which he conferred upon them to publish or print, for private circulation or otherwise, such documents as they might think proper, with the special object of illustrating the History and Antiquities of Scotland. January 1924. (Xvf&Mejm. WILLIAM FRASER, K.C.B., LL.D. at PAPERS FROM Tin < -H I ECTION OF SIR WH M FRASER . ■ ?' : ' n i - f \it, K,C. EDINBURGH Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constahik I/n-, for the Scottish History Society 1924 PAPERS FROM THE COLLECTION OF SIR WILLIAM FRASER K.C.B., LL.D. Edited by J. R. N. MACPHAIL, K.C. EDINBURGH Printed at the University Press by T. and A. Constable Ltd. for the Scottish History Society 1924 Printed in Great Britain CONTENTS INTRODUCTION, ...... vii PAPERS RELATING TO SIMON LORD LOVAT— Introductory Note, . .2 A Short Account of the Process and Trial at the instance of His Majesty’s Advocat, by Special Order of His Majesty’s Privy Council, against Thomas Fraser of Beaufort and Capt. Simon Fraser his Son, and their Complices, for the crimes of treason. and other crimes, contained in their Indytment, . 6 Relative Documents, . .38 PAPERS RELATING TO THE MEARNS— Introductory Note, . .48 i. —Excerpts from a Manuscript by Mr. John Napier, 49 ii. —Memoir of the Irvines of Monboddo, . 83 hi.—Ancestry of the Family of Barclay of Mathers and Ury from a.d. 1110 to a.d. l6l0, . 92 iv. —Writs relating to the Hays of Ury, . 97 v. —Writs relating to Paldy Fair, . .114 vi.—Papers relating to the Valuation of Kincardine- shire, . .124 vn.—Papers relating to William Rait of Hallgreen, . 144 viii.—Miscellaneous Papers relating to the Mearns, . 151 WRITS RELATING TO FISHINGS IN THE YTHAN— Introductory Note, . .174 Writs relating to Fishings in the Ythan, . .175 SIR WILLIAM FRASER’S PAPERS ROYAL PROCLAMATIONS— Introductory Note, . .198 Royal Proclamations, . .199 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS— Introductory Note, . .216 Miscellaneous Papers, ..... 217 INDEX, . .282 INTRODUCTION Sir William Fraser, K.C.B., LL.D., was born at Arduthie, near Stonehaven, on 18th February 1816. When still a young man, after some successful inquiries for other people, he turned his attention to the history of his own family. He failed, however, to trace it very far. In the year 1740 a certain John Fraser, said to be ‘of the Frasers of Lovat ’ and to have come from Kirkmichael in the heights of Banffshire, had a small farm in the parish of Aberlour. His wife was Jean Carmichael, and they had a son William, born in 1746, and two daughters Anne and Clementina, a name in those days suggesting loyalty to the exiled Royal House. About 1770 William Fraser the son found his way to Aberdeen and thence into the Mearns, where he was employed in building a new steading at Cowie, near Stonehaven. On the completion of the work he settled down there as a mason and married Christian Young, daughter of James Young, tenant of the Mill of Cowie, by whom he had a large family, including William who carried on business as a mason and builder in Stone- haven ; James, the father of Sir William; and Jean, married to John Dickson, tenant of Alpity, a farm on Arbuthnott. In 1845 this John Dickson, then a man of eighty-seven, told Sir William that though his grandfather said he came from the Awin Water side, he was not in the way of talking about his connections in the North Country—that he had ‘ a kilt in which he dressed occasionally with long flowing hair on his back,’ and that his wife, when they returned from their marriage jaunt, reported that she had met some viii SIR WILLIAM FRASER’S PAPERS relative, a Fraser of good position. All the elements of a romance seemed ready to hand. But there the curtain fell, and nothing more could be ascertained—not even from a son of Clementina Fraser, William Garden by name, who died in 1885 at the age of ninety-nine. James Fraser, like his father and elder brother William, became a mason. In 1815 he married Ann Walker, daughter of James Walker, tenant of the farm of Elf hill of Fetteresso, and Jean Aitershanks his wife, and took up house at Links of Arduthie, near Stonehaven. They had three children : William, born 18th February 1816 ; John, born 31st July 1818 ; and Ann, born 29th August 1820. Sir William was educated at a private school in Stonehaven kept by the Rev. Charles Michie. On 23rd August 1830 he entered on a five-years’ apprenticeship with Messrs. Brand and Burnett, Solicitors, Stonehaven. During these years he made many friends among the other lads of his own age, with whom, after he left Stonehaven, he kept up a correspondence dignified and precocious on both sides. He also seems to have been caught by the prevailing excitement about the Reform Bill of 1832, for one of his most cherished possessions was a banner with an appro- priate inscription, apparently home-made, which he had carried in a procession to celebrate the passing of that measure and welcome the new heaven and new earth which, it was understood, this alteration of electoral machinery would soon produce. In 1834 James Fraser died at the age of forty-seven. His wife had died in 1821, and their child John a few months after that. So the brother and sister were left orphans at the ages of eighteen and thirteen respectively. That the boy had commended himself to his employers, and that the family circumstances were somewhat narrow, is evidenced by the terms of a letter of sympathy from Mr. Brand with a gift of £5, and by the lad’s reply. Even in INTRODUCTION ix those early days it is plain that Sir William carefully prepared his letters and preserved the drafts. On the completion of his apprenticeship he went to Edinburgh in December 1835, and had the good fortune to obtain employment with Messrs. Hill and Tod, W.S., with whom he stayed some four years. While in this situation he attended the University of Edinburgh, and in particular the classes of Scots Law and Conveyancing, of which George Joseph Bell and MacVey Napier were then the professors. In January 1840 he entered the office of Mr. Warren Hastings Sands, W.S., with whom he remained till nearly the end of 1848. Mr. Sands was a man of some importance, being Solicitor of Teinds. Fraser’s position in his office must have been rather an unusual one. Not merely did he carry on business on his own account, chiefly though not solely in connection with peerage claims and cases where historical and antiquarian knowledge was of importance, but in 1842 he became clerk to Mr. Charles Baillie, afterwards Lord Jerviswoode, and in 1847 to Mr. Cosmo Innes, then Sheriff of Elgin and Nairn. From Mr. Sands he passed to Mr. John Gibson, a prominent Writer to the Signet who had acted for Sir Walter Scott in his troubles, and was a clerk with him till 1st January 1851, when along with Mr. Gibson’s son he became a partner of the firm of Gibsons and Fraser, W.S. In February of that year he was admitted a member of the Society of Solicitors before the Supreme Court. During all this time he maintained a regular correspond- ence with his uncle and with a number of his early friends. From such letters as have been preserved it is plain that away in Edinburgh, and steadily climbing the professional ladder, Sir William maintained a keen and kindly interest not merely in his own kith and kin, but in his native place and its people generally, and was always ready to help every SIR WILLIAM FRASER’S PAPERS deserving object—and some undeserving ones—that were commended to his notice. It was the time of the great Disruption controversy, and many of the letters have references to that unfortunate dispute. Fraser had a great admiration for the Rev. Dr. Thomas Guthrie and was much under his influence, but while that influence made him a strong and even bitter non-intrusionist, it was not strong enough to make him leave the Church of his fathers in 1843. To this result his uncle would seem to have contributed not a little. The hard-headed old gentleman, for many years an elder and Session Treasurer of the parish of Fetteresso, did not regard the constitution of the Church as perfect; but he did not think that a Dis- ruption was the best way to put things right, and he made this very clear to his nephew, who till the end of his long life remained a member of St. Cuthbert’s Church. In those days the remuneration of a law clerk depended a good deal on the amount of writing which he did, and Fraser’s remarkably fine script was thus of material use in increasing his income. He also for a considerable time kept the business books of his employers, and so developed those orderly and methodical habits that characterised him in such a marked degree. It was his good fortune also to be concerned in various cases requiring antiquarian and, in particular, genealogical research, and he was thus early introduced to those studies in which he became such an expert, and steadily built up that remarkable body of knowledge which made possible his great series of family histories.