Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE FRASERS OF TOUCH-FRASER, ETC., AND COWIE. 91
ment; but in 1564, William, fifth Lord Hay of Yester, adopted a form of
shield broader at the base upon his seal, and then the five rosettes or cinque-
foils, placed saltireways, are found in both the first and fourth quarters. 1
The Hays of Tallo, in the barony of Oliver Castle, a junior branch of the
Tweeddale family, adopted four, disposed 2 . 2 ., 2 and in the second and third
quarters of the shield, on a seal of John, Earl of Wigton and Lord Fleming,
in 1644 — the descendant of the Sir Patrick Fleming that married the other
daughter and co-heiress of Sir Simon Fraser, filius — six rosettes or cinquefoils
are found, but they are disposed 2 . 2 . 2. 3 All of these various dispositions
by the posterity of Sir Simon Fraser, filius, effectually difference their bearings
from the Fraser coat of arms, either before or after the reduction from six,
3.2.1, to three, 2. 1.
It can scarcely be doubted that the heralds of the seventeenth century, in
their ignorance of the ancient bearings of the family, imagined that the
disposition found in the arms of the Lords of Yester was that used by Sir
Simon Fraser, filius, whom they chose to style " Lord Fraser of old ;" and
that this error, coupled with the absurd punning derivation of the name, led
them into the utterly fallacious heraldry recorded in the above extracts,
which Mr. Anderson did not possess sufficient acquaintance with the subject
to detect, but which has been long rejected by the Lords Lovat, who bear
the three rosettes or cinquefoils, placed 2.1, of their ancestor Hugh Fraser.
1 Laing's Scottish Seals, vol. i. Plate 28, 2 Laing's Scottish Seals, vol. i. p. 223,
Nos. 2, 5, 8 ; pp. 224, 225, Nos. 1225, 1228, No. 1223.
1230. 3 Ibid. vol. ii. p. 63, No. 367.