Frasers of Philorth > Volume 1

THE FRASERS OF COWIE, DURRIS, AND PHILORTH. 127
the heirs of their bodies ; whom failing, to Sir Alexander, dominus de Forbes,
and the heirs of his body ; the lands of Glaslach, Culcoak, Tulynamolt,
Nether, Over, and Middlemas Bulgny, Achlun, Petslegach (Pitsligo), etc. ;
and this charter, with its confirmation by James de Douglas, Lord of Bal-
venie, the superior of Aberdour, was confirmed by King James I. in 1426. 1
A former charter of these lands had been granted by Sir James de Douglas,
on the 24th July 1423, to William de Forbes and his wife, Agnes, upon the
resignation of her father ; and the further destination of them to the Lord of
Forbes in 1424, may have arisen from some attempt at a compromise.
There can be no doubt that the possessions in the districts of Eoss, Inver-
ness, and Galloway, acquired by Sir Alexander Fraser on his marriage with
Lady Johanna de Eoss, were also lost by their son, Sir William, for they no
longer appear among the family estates ; but the records of their transference
to other hands have not been discovered. There is, however, some reason to
believe that those in the district of Inverness fell to William de Forbes and
Agnes Fraser, the progenitors of the Pitsligo family, and, about a century
later, passed by sale from that family into the hands of Lord Fraser of
Lovat.
The unhappy loss of so many estates was doubtless the cause of the repre-
sentative of the Philorth family not having been raised to the dignity of a
peerage, when barons by patent began to be created in Scotland, as he would,
in all likelihood, have been selected for that honour, if the possessions and
influence of Sir Alexander Fraser, first of Philorth, had been preserved intact.
In 1430, Alexander, Earl of Mar and the Garioch, confirmed a charter of
the lands of Tibberty and Utlaw from Sir William Fraser to his son and heir,
Alexander Fraser, and Marjorie Menzies, the wife of the latter ; and in the
same year Sir James de Douglas, Lord of Balvenie, issued a precept of sasine
in Culburty, Memsie, Over and Nether Pittullie, and Eathen, in favour of
Alexander Fraser, on the resignation of his father, 2 and these properties were
evidently the provision for the heir-apparent at the time of his marriage.
The date of this precept is printed 1420 in the Antiquities of Aberdeenshire,
published by the Spalding Club, vol. ii. p. 378 ; but the original document,
though a good deal damaged, seems to have had a third numeral x, and that
1 Antiquities of Aberdeenshire, vol. ii. p. 380. 2 Philorth Charter-room.