Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

122 THE FRASERS OF COWIE, DURRIS, AND PHILORTH.
styled " filius et heres domini Alexandri Fraser, militis, domini baronie de
Cowy, ac dominus de Filorth," and, therefore, he was probably born about
1376, and infeft in Philorth on his mother's decease.
About 1404 he married a lady of the Douglas family, for, on the 8th of
December in that year, Isabel de Douglas, Countess of Mar and the Garioch,
gave a charter of the lands of Tibarty and Utlaw, in the barony of " Strauth-
aveth," in the sheriffdom of Banff, " dilecto nostro affmi Gulielmo Fraser, et
Elinore de Duglas, sponse sue ... in libero maritagio." 1
The parentage of Elinor de Douglas is uncertain. Crawfurd says that
she was a daughter of Archibald the Grim, third Earl of Douglas. The same
view is taken in the Peerage by Douglas, who erroneously calls her husband
" Alexander Fraser." This account of her parentage seems scarcely correct,
for if she had been a daughter of the third Earl, his two sons, the fourth Earl
and James de Douglas, Lord of Abercorn, would have been brothers-in-law
to her husband, William Fraser, and would have designated him accordingly,
instead of by the term " consanguineus," or cousin, which they will be seen
to have used to him.
Taking into consideration the probable date of her birth, about 1385, and
that she was dowered by Isabella, Countess of Mar, it may be conjectured
that she was an illegitimate daughter of that lady's brother, the gallant
James, second Earl of Douglas and Earl of Mar, who fell at Otterburn in
1388.
"William Fraser obtained the lands of Over and Nether Pittullie, Pitsbgach,
Culburty, and others, all within the barony of Aberdour, in 1408, on the
resignation of his father, who reserved his own superiority and the terce of
Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, his second wife. In pursuance of the resignation,
the superior, James de Douglas, Lord of Abercorn and Aberdour, granted a
charter of these subjects " carissimo consanguineo nostro Willelmo Fraser,"
which was confirmed in the same year by Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglas,
who used similar terms in the designation of the grantee. 2
1 Antiquities of Aberdeenshire, vol. iii. de Bruce by her first husband, Gratney, Earl
p. 576. The grandfather of the Countess, of Mar, and her third, Sir Andrew Moray
Donald, Earl of Mar, and William Fraser's of Bothwell.
grandmother, Margaret Moray, were half
brother and sister, children of Lady Christian - Philorth Charter-room.