Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

96 THE FRASERS OF COWIE, DURRIS, AND PHILORTH.
so designated in his son Bernard's agreement with John de Lambyrton, on
the Sunday after St. Matthew's day, 1295, at which date he was dead, 1 and
he is also found as a witness with that rank before 1268 ; 2 so that, if the
argument on the omission of the title of Knight in Eobertson's Index were
worth anything, it would apply as forcibly to this Alexander as to the
Chamberlain.
3d, It is difficult to understand how Mr. Anderson could venture to assert
the " impracticability of instructing that " the Chamberlain " ever possessed
the estate of Cowie," for it is evident that he had consulted Eobertson's
Index, aud the Haddington Collection, both of which authorities he quotes
at page 37 of his work, in proof of charters granted to Sir Alexander Fraser
the Chamberlain, especially that of Auchincarnie, and yet he says nothing of
the charter of the forest of Craigie, in the thanage of Cowie, granted to the
same Sir Alexander Fraser, as is proved by the tenor of the document, which
is also in the Haddington Collection ; nor does he notice the titles, in
Eobertson's Index, of that charter, and of another of the thanage of Cowie, to
Alexander Fraser, although they are both in the same roll of the Index with
that of Auchincarnie, which he does mention, and the three are numbered
respectively 51, 55, and 61, and the suppression of evidence, so adverse to
his argument, with which he must certainly have been acquainted, throws
grave suspicion upon his good faith as an historian, and with the refutation
of the two other statements on which his argument is based, effectually dis-
poses of it.
To return, however, to the question of the Chamberlain's having possessed
Cowie.
In the account of his life it has been already noticed that, towards the
close of the thirteenth century, there were three members of the race in
existence bearing the name of " Alexander."
Of the above three persons, two were considerably older than the third,
and it is shown in the foregoing remarks that one, the Sir Alexander Fraser,
father of the William Fraser who swore fealty to Edward I. in 1296, died in
or before 1295, and could not have possessed Cowie in 1327. It has been
also shown that a second Sir Alexander Fraser was a Baron and Knight,
1 Cart. Glasgow, No. 251. 2 Reg. Hon. de Morton, vol. ii. No. 7-