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Introduction

The earliest written record of Frasers in Scotland is in 1160, when a Simon Fraser held lands in East Lothi­an at Keith. In that year, he made the gift of a church to the Tironensian monks at Kelso Abbey. The...

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1300 – 1306

Sir Simon Fraser of Neidpath, can be thought of as the founding father of the Lovat Frasers. Born in 1257 in Neidpath Castle near Peebles, he met a gruesome death in London in 1306. He had been captured fighting in the...

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1300-1500’s

From the early 1300s, then, Frasers established themselves in what has ever since been recognised as the Lovat Fraser homeland – Beauly and the Aird. The first document linking a Fraser with these lands of Lovat and the Aird is...

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1600s

When Elizabeth I of England died in 1603, her closest male heir was King James VI of Scotland. James united the thrones of Scotland, England and Wales, and Ireland, to create Great Britain. He became King James VI of Scotland...

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1667-1747

Like an old eagle, Lovat smiles enigmatically from under hooded eyes – complete with 18th century frock coat, wig, breeches, wrinkly stockings, and shoes with silver buckles. This is Lovat as the great cartoonist Hogarth saw him, in the Tower of London....

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1750-1800

A series of weak chiefs, combined with premature chiefly deaths that left child heirs to the chieftainship. These boy chiefs came under the influence of their mother’s people. It was normal for clans to form marital alliances. The daughters of...

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1899-1945

In 1899, Simon 16th Lord Lovat raised the Lovat Scouts as a volunteer unit to fight in the Boer War.  The officers were raised from the local Highland gentry and most of the men were stalkers, ghillies, shepherds and crofters....

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1940-1946

Who were the Commandos? The Commandos were raised in 1940 during the period of crisis that followed Dunkirk and were subsequently disbanded in 1946. All commandos were the best of the best, hand picked from every regiment of the armed...

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1911-1995

Brigadier Simon Fraser, 17th Lord Lovat, DSO, MC, TD, JP, DL was the 24th Chief of the Clan Fraser of Lovat and a prominent British Commando during the Second World War. His friends called him Shimi Lovat, an anglicised version...

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1915-2019

In the autumn of 1915, at the height of the Great War, Lochiel (Chief of Clan Cameron and a cousin of the Moniack Frasers) mournfully predicted that “another old Inverness-shire family was becoming extinct”. Of the 15th Lord Lovat’s three...

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1964-today

In 1964, with Expo 67 being planned, the Montreal Military & Maritime Museum decided to re-raise this famous Regiment to take part in the colour and festivities of the World's Fair. Colonel J. Ralph Harper undertook the research and Mr....

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Outlander & The New Clan Brand

We are extremely grateful to Diana for taking the time to explain why she chose Clan Fraser for her hero Jamie:   WHY FRASER? I’m often asked (and not only by people named Fraser) why, when I decided to write...

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Looking back to 1746

It feels like nothing changes here...though 273 Years ago, tragedy tore, howled, screamed, burned and slashed its way through this place. Not today. The only sound that screamed in my hearing today was a sika deer; half way between a...

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