Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat (c.1667 – 9 April 1747, London), was a Scottish Jacobite and Chief of Clan Fraser of Lovat, known for his feuding and changes of allegiance. In 1715, he had been a supporter of the House of Hanover, but in 1745 he changed sides and supported the Stuart claim on the crown of the United Kingdom. Lovat was among the Highlanders defeated at the Battle of Culloden and convicted of treason against the Crown, following which he was sentenced to death and subsequently beheaded. He was the last man in Britain to be executed by beheading, although beheading was not formally abolished in UK law until 1973.

Early life

Simon was the second son of Thomas Fraser (1631-1699), known as ‘Thomas of Beaufort’. His mother was Sybilla Macleod (d 1682). The Beaufort Frasers were related to Lord Lovat, the chief of the highland Clan Fraser. Simon was tutored privately at his home near Beauly, followed by a period at grammar school in Inverness. He was a capable student, becoming fluent in English, French and Gaelic, as well as gaining a solid grounding in Latin.^[1]

His older brother Alexander died from wounds received fighting government forces at the inconclusive Battle of Killiecrankie. Simon, now his father’s heir, left home to study at King's College, Aberdeen, where he was a ‘diligent student’^[2] and graduated with an MA in 1695.

Issues of inheritance

Upon graduation in 1695 he was at a crossroads, owing to the leadership of the clan by Hugh Fraser, 9th Lord Lovat (1666-1696). Recognising the threat posed to it by the expanding power of the nearby Clan Mackenzie, as well as its allies the Atholl Murrays, Simon of Beaufort needed to ensure his father’s succession to the lordship. There were two avenues available to him to pursue this claim: the law or the army.^[3] He chose the latter. Accordingly, he went to Edinburgh and undertook to recruit three hundred men from his clan to form part of a regiment in the service of William and Mary. This was done more to ensure a body of well-trained soldiers under his influence than loyalty to the government.^[4] However, a suspicious Lord John Murray (brother of Hugh Fraser's wife, Amelia Murray) was colonel of Simon’s regiment and he was only given a lieutenancy, not a salaried captainship.

In early 1696, whilst on a trip to London in the company of both Simon of Beaufort and Lord John Murray, Hugh assigned the succession of the Lovat title to the Beaufort Frasers.^[5][6] Hugh died that same year, and Thomas of Beaufort (Simon’s father) then took on the title of 10th Lord Lovat, but the succession was to be disputed by Lord John Murray, now the Earl of Tullibardine and the most powerful man in Scotland.

Open violence

After a fierce verbal encounter in Edinburgh, when Tullibardine attempted to make Simon renounce his claim to the lordship,^[7] Simon went to Castle Dounie to negotiate with Hugh’s widow Amelia for the hand of her young daughter (also called Amelia). Tullibardine responded by removing his niece to Blair Castle, stronghold of the Murrays. It was his intention that she marry Alexander Fraser, heir to Lord Saltoun and unrelated to the highland Frasers.

Simon responded to this by kidnapping the young Master of Saltoun when he arrived in Fraser territory in an attempt win local support for the marriage.^[8] By having a gallows built outside the window of his prison and threatening to hang him, Simon successfully dissuaded Alexander from marrying the heiress. Although this incident was characteristic of a private clan feud,^[9] Tullibardine had no intention of letting the matter rest. He declared the Frasers had risen in open rebellion against the Crown, and harried the colonel in charge of the government barracks at Fort William to proceed against Fraser.

Before the Crown could respond, however, Simon undertook an act in October 1697 which was to have dire consequences for both himself and others. ‘If he could not have Amelia the daughter, he would have Amelia the mother’.^[10] Whilst at Castle Dounie he had an ‘inebriated’ Episcopal minister brought in to marry them. He then raped her. Her family, the most powerful in Scotland, was naturally enraged by this act of violence. Once Simon allowed his wife to rejoin her family at Blair Castle, the Privy Council and Court of Session issued ‘Letters of Intercommuning’, preventing people from ‘communing’ with Simon, his father and any of his followers. Moreover, they could be brought in ‘dead or alive’.^[11] A military expedition of both Atholl Murray men and government troops was sent to Fraser country in February 1698 to achieve this, but they failed to capture him. Simon and his father made good their escape to the highlands, and the troops could do little but destroy Fraser property.^[12]

They were eventually cited to answer two charges: forced marriage and rape, as well as raising men in arms. In September 1698– and still notable for their absence– Simon, his father, and twenty leading men of the clan were convicted of the capital crime of rebellion.^[13] Eventually Simon and his father took refuge at Dunvegan Castle on Skye. This was the ancestral home to the McLeods, his mother’s family. It was here in in May 1699 that the 69 year old Thomas died, still with a price on his head. Simon now assumed the title of Lord Lovat, but he was an outlaw and unable to claim his estates. Simon was obliged to bury his father at Dunvegan rather than the traditional burial place of Lovat Frasers, at Wardlaw, near Beauly. (Eventually, on securing the title, he erected a notably extravagant memorial stone at Wardlaw Mausoleum).

Despite these tribulations, Fraser still commanded the loyalty of his clan, not least because of the Atholl Murrays' ‘systematic attempt to ravage the properties of those Fraser gentlemen well disposed to Simon’s cause'.^[14] After his return from Skye, Simon Fraser commanded about 300 armed followers and successfully ambushed some 600 Athollmen and government soldiers near Inverness. Simon was dissuaded from massacring them, but two of Tullibardine’s brothers were forced to kiss the tip of his sword. The enemy troop were then made to run the gauntlet.^[15] In this, Simon showed he was capable of fulfilling an important role of a highland chief, that of military leader.^[16]

Royal pardon

Simon was facing nearly impossible odds in his attempts to gain control of the Fraser lands, and the law offered him no opportunity for recourse. Both Tullibardine and his ally, George Mackenzie, Viscount of Tarbat, had a firm control of the Edinburgh judiciary.^[17][18] However, he found a powerful ally in Archibald Campbell, tenth Earl (and after 1701, first Duke) of Argyll and chief of the powerful Clan Campbell. Argyll advised Simon to and go to London and seek a pardon from King William, whilst informing William in a letter of the ‘chaos and hostility’^[19] caused by Tullibardine in his pursuit of Simon. Other powerful voices were to support Argyll’s opinion, and ultimately this was to sway the King, now concerned to keep the peace in Scotland whilst he fought a war in Flanders. Granted a pardon in 1700, he was at last free to assume the title of Lord Lovat in the ancestral residence at Castle Dounie. Argyll was himself elevated to a Dukedom, and his rise seemed to presage Tullibardine’s fall as well as Simon’s advancement

This improvement in his fortunes was not to last. The business of the forced marriage and rape was unresolved (it being a matter concerning private individuals, not the Crown), and the Murrays did not relent on this charge. When he failed to appear in court in February 1701 to answer the charge of ‘rapt and hamesucken’,^[20] he was again outlawed. This was followed up a year later by more ‘letters of intercommuning’ (known more dramatically as a ‘Commission of Fire and Sword’). In March 1702 King William died, and Anne of Denmark became Queen. She favoured Tullibardine, rather than Argyll.

A final blow was received in mid-1702 when Amelia, the 13-year-old daughter of Hugh, the 9th Lord Lovat, married Alexander Mackenzie, who took the name ‘Alexander Mackenzie of Fraserdale’. This supposedly made him a Fraser, and by the terms of Hugh’s marriage contract of 1685, his first born son would inherit the title and estates of Lovat. The Mackenzie takeover of Fraser lands was very close to fruition.^[21] They newly married couple moved into Castle Dounie while Simon was in London, seeking to meet the new Queen. On Argyll’s advice, Lovat left Britain and headed to a place that might offer a solution to the ongoing issue of his inheritance: the court of the exiled Stuarts, at St Germains-en-Laye in France.

At the court of exiles

After fifteen years of exile, the family of James II was still hoping to regain the thrones of England and Scotland. The elder James had died a few months before Simon’s arrival, but his 14-year-old son James stood ready. However, the court-in-exile was divided into two factions. One, headed by the Earl of Middleton (‘good tempered, affable and patient’ ^[22]) favoured a peaceful accession by young James to the throne of England on the death of Anne. The other faction was headed by the Duke of Perth (‘proud and passionate’^[23]) which saw an armed rising in Scotland, assisted materially by France, as the most likely way to restore the family to its former glory. Simon gravitated towards the Duke of Perth’s faction, not least because Simon’s cousin, John McLean, already belonged to it.

One major step Fraser took to advance his cause was to convert to Catholicism. The court was ostentatiously Catholic, with James’ mother Mary of Modena setting the standard for piety, and Middleton had himself recently converted. Once a Catholic, Simon was also able to secure a private audience with the King of France, Louis XIV, at Versailles. Here, speaking in 'good French with a Scots accent’^[24] he put forward a plan for a rising by the Jacobite clans of the highlands, aided by French troops, arms and money. Later, he added flesh to these plans. About five thousand French troops would land on the east coast of Scotland, at Dundee. At the same time, five hundred men were to land on the west coast and seize Fort William or Inverlochy. Together, they would march towards Edinburgh, gathering men from the clans as they progressed. The involvement of the highlanders was ‘the main and the novel feature’^[25] of Simon’s plan. It has also been suggested by later writers^[26][27] that this plan would form the basis of both major Jacobite uprisings, in 1715 and 1745.

Although the Jacobite ruling council ultimately agreed to the plan, Middleton was cautious and recommended to Louis that Fraser be sent back to Scotland to obtain written proof that the highland clans would rise if French troops landed. So, after a year in France, Simon returned to Scotland in mid-1703 to lay the groundwork for an invasion and uprising which could allow him to reclaim his title and estates.

Double dealings

Scotland at that point was debating its future relations with England. Fraser found that his political opponents, including John Murray (formerly Earl of Tullibardine, now Duke of Atholl), more inclined to support independence for Scotland than union with England. To complicate matters further, there was a distinct lack of enthusiasm for a Jacobite uprising amongst the highland chiefs he was able to meet. So, in an act of pragmatism, he decided to meet with the Queen's representative to the Scottish parliament, James, 2nd Duke of Queensberry, and tell him what he knew of the French plans for an invasion.

This act of betrayal of the Stuart cause makes sense if one accepts that Fraser’s ultimate goal was his restoration to the title and estates of Lovat. Although his brother John had endeavoured to keep his clansmen’s loyalty as well as collecting rent in Simon’s absence, there were signs that they were beginning to accept a Mackenzie in his place. So, a successful Jacobite uprising – which might still occur – could dramatically restore Fraser to his title and estates in the face of the increasing odds against it. Alternatively, he might ensure his political rehabilitation by ingratiating himself with the government of Queen Anne, should they prevail instead.^[28]

To this end, in September 1703 he secretly met with the Duke of Queensberry in Edinburgh. As well as explaining the French invasion plans, he handed the Duke a letter from Mary of Modena, addressed to an ‘L. J. M.’. This, Fraser suggested, was Lord John Murray, now the Duke of Atholl. (In reality, these initials were probably placed there by Fraser himself).^[29] Queensberry, fighting to enact the Queen’s wishes for union, was happy to see his political foe Atholl implicated in dealings with the exiled Stuarts, and notified London of this new intelligence. At a later meeting in London, he gave Fraser a passport under a false name allowing him to leave the country. With news already circulating London about Fraser’s return to Britain, and calls being made for his capture, he was obliged to return to France to explain himself.

Imprisonment in France

On his return in late 1703, Lovat prepared a report to Mary of Modena summarising Jacobite support in Scotland, which actually appeared favourable for her son’s return to the throne. After an initially warm response, news of his double dealings reached Paris. King Louis XIV responded initially by sending Lovat into exile in the middle of France, at Bourges. Misjudging the extent to which he was out of favour, he used a gratuity and a pension from the French King to help pay for lavish celebrations in the city in recognition of French military successes. Louis responded by sending him to prison at Angoulême where he was to remain, unable to influence events, for the next three years. In 1707 he was moved to the town of Saumur. He was not in prison, and able to correspond and see visitors, but he was not allowed to visit Paris or Scotland.

Return to Britain and the 1715 rebellion

As late as 1714, many Fraser gentry had still not accepted Alexander Mackenzie as their chief, even though he was married to the heiress and was living at Castle Dounie. A group of Fraser gentlemen sent one of their own, James Fraser of Castle Leathers, to Saumur in order to bring Simon back home. After some hesitation by Simon, they returned to Britain via Dover. He then bided his time in London in order to determine his legal status.

At this point, political events again overtook Fraser’s life. The childless Queen Anne died just before his return to Britain and was succeeded by George of Hanover. In response, a Jacobite rebellion broke out in Scotland in September 1715, led by the Earl of Mar. Seeing his opportunity for redemption, Lovat secured permission to return to Scotland and help rally the Fraser clansmen for the government.

After an arduous trip north, Fraser finally met up with his loyal clansmen outside of Inverness, which had been occupied by Jacobite troops. The Clan Mackenzie had already declared for the Stuart King in France, and several hundred Fraser men had joined them under the Earl of Seaforth. But ‘when they heard I was in my country’, he claimed, 'they ‘made a great desertion in Mar’s army’.^[30] Fraser’s ‘energy and tactical acuity’^[31] certainly reinvigorated the government’s campaign in the north, and by helping ensure no reinforcements arrived, he expedited the surrender of Inverness by its Jacobite garrison on 12 November 1715.

Restoration of the title and estates

For his efforts, which included securing the surrender of the Earl of Seaforth, Fraser secured a full pardon from the King in March 1716.^[32] He was now able to occupy Castle Dounie as the 11th Lord Lovat without fear of arrest or execution. Another concession by the King later that year meant that he could also claim the income from the estates, although only for the lifetime of the previous tenant, Alexander Mackenzie (now languishing in a jail in Carlisle after having risen for the Jacobites). In a further sign of his restoration to respectability, Lovat was also appointed Governor of the Castle at Inverness and given command of his own Company of Foot.

The rest of Simon’s life involved untangling the legal and financial problems he had inherited with the title, as well as fending off lawsuits from various claimants in the courts (one writer suggests he may even have enjoyed them).^[33] One notable legal dispute was with Alexander Mackenzie (who had been pardoned for his rebellion in 1715) over the income of the estates, which dragged through the courts until the 1730s. It was only then, with the payment of a crippling sum of money as compensation, that Simon stood in undisputed possession of his title and estates.^[34]

Lovat as Clan Chief

As a clan chief, he had a medieval conception of the role. He had little patience for those leading clansmen who disagreed with him, and he quarrelled furiously with men such as Alexander Fraser of Phopachy and James Fraser of Castle Leathers. His relations with lesser clansmen were marked by a paternal interest in their affairs.

Generally he had a bag of farthings for when he walked abroad the contents of which he distributed among any beggars whom he met. He would stop a man on the road; inquire how many children he had; offer him sound advice; and promise to redress his grievances if he had any’^[35]

In his own estimate, he took care his clansmen were ‘always well-clothed and well-armed, after the Highland fashion, and not to suffer them to wear low-country clothes’.^[36] In return he kept a lavish table at his (smallish) castle, with a ‘great abundance of all kinds of meat – and drink’.^[37] As a recent biographer notes, it was really a redistribution of the rent he had collected from the clansmen.^[38]

Family

With Lovat’s forced marriage with Amelia Murray in 1697 conveniently being forgotten, he married Margaret Grant in 1717. This marriage, ‘the most successful of Lovat’s matrimonial experiences’.^[39] produced three girls (Georgina, Janet, Sibyl) and two boys (Simon and Alexander). Simon, born 1726, became Master of Lovat. Margaret died in 1729 and he remarried the 23 year old Primrose Campbell four years later. This produced one child, Archibald, but the marriage did not appear to be a happy one and they separated in 1738.

Jacobite sympathies

Lovat was always a Jacobite, dating back to the first rising in 1689. His loyalty to the government in London was only ever a means to an end, the recovery of his title and estates. He nevertheless gave advice to the government about the best way to manage the Highlands. In a memorial on the topic in 1724, Lovat suggested that attempts to disarm the Jacobites had been ineffective. (Loyal clans had been deprived of their weapons, disloyal ones only gave up their obsolete ones). He also emphasised the usefulness of the military companies, which had been disbanded in 1717, in the suppression of lawlessness in the Highlands.

The government noted his memorial and sent General George Wade to Scotland to assess the situation. He largely agreed with Lovat, and this led to the creation of six Independent Highland Companies. Lovat was given command of one of these. In addition, Wade advocated and then oversaw the building of fortresses in the Highlands, linked by good roads and bridges. It was an important step in bringing the Highlands in closer contact with the outside world, a trend which an old style Gallic chief like Lovat deprecated.^[40]

Lovat was always opposed to the Union of 1707 and he continued to indulge his Jacobite leanings, even corresponding with the latest claimant to the throne, Charles Edward Stuart (the son of James) from 1736.^[41] He also was a founding member of the Association for the Restoration of the Stuarts, along with several other leading men of Scotland. The government was aware of his disloyal dealings, and in 1740 deprived him of command of an Independent Company. This he deemed a bitter insult ^[42] and was cited by him as a reason for joining the last Jacobite rebellion in 1745.

"The '45"

The arrival of Charles Edward Stuart in Scotland in August 1745 to reclaim his throne dismayed Simon.^[43] He felt that the ‘Young Pretender’ should have brought arms and soldiers from France rather than solely rely on the Jacobite clans to rise on his behalf. He was clearly unsure about which side to support, and so sent messages of support to each. The government was also unsure about Fraser. They saw men drilling on his green, ‘but only he knew why, and the law’s arm was restrained till he should be forced to declare his choice’.^[44]

Even after the Master of Lovat, 19 year old Simon, left to fight for the young Prince with many clansmen in December 1745, Lovat claimed that it was against his wishes. The government eventually lost patience with him and ordered him to Inverness. Initially he was kept confined in his own townhouse, but escaped without difficulty through a secret passage.^[45] He was rowed by his faithful clansmen down Loch Ness to Gorthleck House, high on a hill overlooking the loch.

The Jacobite army, having invaded England, had retreated as far as Inverness by February 1746. They were in poor shape, with little food or money. They eventually met their end on 16 April 1746 at Drumossie Moor near Culloden House (the Battle of Culloden). The Fraser clansmen were in the front line of battle and bore much of the brunt of the fighting. Watching the battle was Lovat’s son, 9 year old Archibald. His half-brother Simon, the Master of Lovat, was still on his way there when he met the Jacobite soldiers streaming back towards Inverness in defeat.^[46]

Lord Lovat finally met Prince Charles Edward Stuart that evening at Gorthleck House. They had a short conversation in French, and Lovat advised him to regroup in the hills, beyond the reach of the redcoats.^[47] They drank wine together, and then the Prince was gone. Lovat himself was also obliged to retreat. He was rowed across Loch Ness, and escaped westwards, possibly seeing from a distance his beloved Castle Dounie burning. The Hanoverian army had already looted the castle and surrounding lands.

Even then, so broken down by gout and arthritis that he had to be carried on a litter, Lovat’s mental resources did not fail. In a conference with other Jacobites on the shores of Loch Arkaig, he proposed that they should raise a body of three thousand men and play cat and mouse with the leader of the government army, the Duke of Cumberland.^[48] Fraser himself aimed to get to France. In June, sailors from the government sloop Furnace searched the island of Loch Morar, near the Atlantic coast. They only just missed Lovat. He was captured shortly afterwards on the shore of the loch, and brought to London for trial. As he neared London, William Hogarth painted his portrait in oil, showing Simon enumerating some points on his fingers. What these points are remain a matter of conjecture.^[49]

Trial and execution

Lodged in the Tower of London, Simon awaited his trial for high treason which began in March 1747. The trial at Westminster Hall took seven days, with the first five consisting of evidence against the accused. On the sixth day he spoke in his defence, but the result was a foregone conclusion, and the guilty verdict passed at the end of the day. On the final day, his punishment of a traitor’s death by hanging, drawing and quartering was announced, which was later commuted by the King to beheading.

He remained sanguine in the days leading up to the execution, even exhibiting a sense of humour. The day of his execution, 9 April 1747, saw many spectators arrive at Tower Hill, and an overcrowded timber stand collapsed, leaving 9 spectators dead, to Lovat’s wry amusement.^[50] Among his last words was a line of Horace: Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. (It is sweet and seemly to die for one’s country). He died, in his own eyes, as a Scottish patriot.

Burial

Simon had requested burial at the family mausoleum at Wardlaw near Inverness and the government initially agreed but changed their minds thinking his body could become a rallying point for further trouble. He was therefore buried in the floor of the chapel within the Tower of London, St. Peter ad Vincula. The chapel was refurbished in the 19th century and the floor was relaid. One of the coffins uncovered during the works had the nameplate of ‘Lord Lovat’. The names of those found are now recorded on a plaque on the wall of the chapel.

Lovat Fraser family lore and several books on the Lovats^[51] state that he is in fact buried at Wardlaw Mausoleum, Kirkhill, Inverness. There were 9 days between the execution and burial during part of which time his body could be viewed for one penny until the authorities put a stop to it as ‘unseemly’. It is believed that friends or family members swapped the bodies in the coffin and someone else is buried in the floor of the chapel. He is said to have been brought from Gravesend to Inverness on the merchant ship ‘The Pledger’ which sailed up the Beauly Firth to Wardlaw and he was interned in the crypt of the mausoleum.

There are 6 lead covered coffins in the crypt and his is said to be on the far left. The bronze nameplate has become detached but reads (translation from Latin) “In this coffin are laid the remains of Simon Lord Fraser of Lovat who, after twenty years in His own Land and abroad with the greatest distinction and renown, at the risk of his own life, restored and preserved his race, clan and household from the tyranny of the Athol and the treacherous plotting of the Mackenzies of Tarbat. To preserve an ancient house is not the greatest credit. Nor is there any honour for the enemy who despoiled it. Although that enemy was strong in his plotting and unrelenting warfare, yet Simon who was also skillful and cunning defeated him in war."^[52]

At the bottom of the plaque is an engraving of the Lovat Coat of Arms. However instead of a baron’s coronet there is a ducal one. Simon had been made a duke by the Old Pretender. Next to his coffin are those of his two sons, General Simon Fraser (1726-1782) and Archibald Campbell Fraser (1736-1815), Archibald’s wife Jane and two of their children Henry Emo Fraser and John George Hugh Fraser. Archibald’s children all predeceased him and by his request the estate passed to Thomas Alexander Fraser of Strichen in Aberdeenshire, from whom the current Lovat Fraser family descends.

In fiction

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, features as a character in Diana Gabaldon's 1992 novel Dragonfly in Amber, the second novel in her Outlander series. In it, Lovat is the grandfather of Jamie Fraser. Lovat is played by Clive Russell in series 2 of the television series Outlander.

See also

• Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange

References

Bibliography

• Bold, Alan (1973) Scottish Clans. Garrod & Lofthouse Ltd, Crawley.
• Burton, John Hill (1847) Lives of Simon Lord Lovat and Duncan Forbes of Culloden. Chapman and Hall, London.
• Devine, T.M (2006) The Scottish Nation 1700-2007. Penguin Books, London. ISBN 978-0-141-02769-2
• Fraser, Sarah (2012) The Last Highlander. Scotland's Most Notorious Clan Chief, Rebel and Double Agent. Harper Collins, London. ISBN 978-0-00-722949-9
• 'Fraser, Simon, eleventh Lord Lovat' in Oxford Dictionary of Biography Volume 20 (1984) Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-861370-9
• Lenman, Bruce (1984) The Jacobite Clans of the Great Glen 1650-1784 Methuen, London. ISBN 0-413-48690-7
• Mackay, D.N. (1911) Trial of Simon, Lord Lovat, of the '45. Hodge, Edinburgh. (Series: Great British Trials)
• Mackenzie, W.C (1908) Simon Fraser, Lord Lovat. His Life and Times. Chapman and Hall, London.
• Oliver, Neil (2009) A History of Scotland. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London. ISBN 978-0-7538-2663-8
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "^{article name needed}". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. Prebble, John (1996) [1961]. Culloden. Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-025350-5. 
• Ross, David (2005) England. History of a Nation. Geddes & Grosset, New Lanark ISBN 1 84205 319 1

External links

• Biographical

Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Thomas Fraser	Lord Lovat 1699–1747	Succeeded by Thomas Alexander Fraser
Honorary titles
Preceded by Thomas Fraser	MacShimidh 1699–1747	Succeeded by Simon Fraser of Lovat